The Dissimilarity of Attack Rate (AR) of SARS-CoV-2 Virus and Infection Fatality Risk (IFR) Across Different Divisions of Bangladesh

Bangladesh has been identified the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) first cases by the Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) test in March, 2020. As of 15 May 2020, Bangladesh has reported 20,065 confirmed cases. We aimed to assess the variation in the attack rate (AR), sample test, positivity rate and infection fatality risk (IFR) related to COVID-19 patients in these divisions. The number of testing COVID-19 samples by RT-PCR per 100000 populations was the highest in Dhaka (271) and lowest in Barishal (33). Dhaka is the most overcrowded division (1751 per square kilometers). We found that the highest sample tested (271 per 100000), higher attack rate (AR) (386 per million) and positivity rate (14.2%) in Dhaka division compared to those of the other 7 divisions. Rajshahi is the lowest densely-populated division, was the most infected fatality risk (IFR) (11%) compared to the other 7 divisions. This study suggests that more sample testing would be necessary to explore the burden of COVID-19 and mortality rate in the adult population and rural communities.