A COVID-19 patient on life support in the intensive care unit at Dhaka Medical College Hospital in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Aug. 5, 2021. Bangladesh’s already strained health care system is buckling under the ferocity of the country’s third, and by far deadliest, wave of coronavirus infections, but the government is lifting much of its lockdown. (Fabeha Monir/The New York Times)

Bangladesh has reported 16,033 new coronavirus cases, the highest in a day since Jul 28, taking the total caseload to 1,715,997.

The infections soared past 16,000 cases for the second time in the country’s records after 49,697 samples were tested across the country, logging a positivity rate of 32.4 percent, according to the latest government data.

The death toll rose to 28,256 as 18 more patients died from the disease in the 24 hours to 8 am on Tuesday.

Among the eight divisions, Dhaka recorded the highest number of cases and deaths with 10,478 infections and 8 fatalities.

Another 1,095 people recovered from the illness nationwide, bringing the total number of recoveries to 1,558,954.

The latest figures put the recovery rate at 90.85 percent and the mortality rate at 1.65 percent.

Globally, over 355.25 million people have been infected by the novel coronavirus and 5.6 million have died, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

Infections have been reported in more than 210 countries and territories since the first cases were identified in China in December 2019.