<span style="color: black;">The COVID-19 infection in Bangladesh continued its upward trend with the highest number of new infections being reported for the second consecutive day in the country. Bangladesh recorded 11,525 new COVID-19 infections in the last 24 hours on Tuesday morning. This surpasses the highest number of 9964 infections reported on Monday.</span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: black;">The sharp rise of over 10 per cent in one day was accompanied by the second highest number of 163 deaths on Tuesday. The highest number of 164 deaths in a day was reported on Monday from the country.</span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: black;">The sample positivity rate also climbed up to 31.46 per cent from 29.30 per cent on Monday, 28.99 per cent on Sunday and 27.39 per cent on Saturday.</span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: black;">Meanwhile, the country entered the sixth day of the strict lockdown on Tuesday. Several locations in Dhaka reported increased traffic and movement of people compared to the last few days. Police and armed forces continued to patrol the city to control the movement of vehicles and people in compliance with government restrictions.</span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: black;">The government has ramped up efforts to widen the reach of vaccination by lowering the minimum age for vaccination to 35 years from 40 years. Till Monday, more than 58 lakh people had received the first dose and close to 43 lakh people the second dose of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine produced by the Serum Institute of India. About 87,000 people have received the first dose of the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine so far.</span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: black;">Health Minister Zahid Maleque has said that Bangladesh is likely to receive 1 million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine under the COVAX arrangement of WHO in July. Earlier it received 2.5 million doses of Moderna vaccines as a gift from the US under the COVAX programme. It also received 2 million doses of the Sinopharm vaccine purchased from China a few days back.</span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: black;">The Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) has said that mass vaccination will restart soon as Bangladesh has now a sizable stock of vaccines.</span><br />''  <br />