At least nine more children died and 1,192 more were diagnosed with measles or showing measles symptoms in the 24 hours until 8:00am Tuesday.

The Directorate General of Health Services, in its regular press release, said that of the nine deaths, six were suspected measles cases and three were confirmed.

Of the 1,192 infections, 1,105 were suspected cases and 87 were confirmed.

With the latest figures, the total number of deaths linked to measles and symptomatic measles reached 424, while the total infections rose to 58,591.

Among them, 68 deaths and 7,024 infections were  confirmed, while the rest 356 deaths and 51,567 infections were recorded as symptomatic cases.

Of the latest suspected six deaths, two were reported in Sylhet division and one each in Dhaka, Chattogram, Mymensingh and Khulna divisions. All three confirmed deaths were reported in Dhaka division.

Public health experts said that the outbreak was linked to failures in vaccination coverage over the years.

They demanded the declaration of a public health emergency along with immunisation coverage up to the herd immunity level, which is 95 per cent of the population that can be brought under vaccination.

Although the government has not declared an emergency, it launched a nationwide immunisation campaign on April 5.

DGHS updated data on Tuesday showed that vaccination coverage reached 99 per cent of the target population.

Measles infections, however, continue to surge across the country.

Bangladesh, once recognised for its strong immunisation programme under the Expanded Programme on Immunisation, has faced disruptions in recent years due to operational challenges, funding constraints and the Covid-19 pandemic, experts said.

Professor Saif Ullah Munshi of the virology department at Bangladesh Medical University said that the impact of the ongoing vaccination campaign would take time to appear in infection trends.