DHAKA, June 5, 2020 (BSS) – Bangladesh today reported 30 more fatalities from the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in a daily count, raising the death toll from the pandemic to 811.
“The tally of infections has also surged to 60,391 after 2,828 new COVID-19 cases were detected in the last 24 hours,” DGHS Additional Director General Prof Nasima Sultana told a virtual media briefing at the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) in the city.
She said the recovery count rose to 12,804 after another 643 patients were released from hospitals in the same period.
Among the total infections, 21.20 percent patients have recovered while 1.34 percent died so far since the first COVID-19 positive cases were reported in the country on March 8, Nasima said.
She also informed that a total of 14,088 samples, the highest in single day, were tested at 50 authorised labs across the country during that time.
Bangladesh confirmed the first coronavirus death on March 18, ten days after the detection of the first COVID-19 cases.
Nasima said nearly 75 percent COVID-19 patients are taking treatment from their homes, and many of them are being cured every day after receiving treatment through hotlines.
She said among the 30 deaths, three are in their 30s, seven in their 40s, 11 in their 50s, six in their 60s, two in their 70s and one in his 80s.
According to the division-wise data, 11 deaths took place in Dhaka division and 12 in Chattogram division while rests are in other divisions.
The health official laid emphasis on maintaining three heath directives — wearing mask, physical distancing and washing hands by soap — to contain the spread of COVID-19.
She said the people must wear masks to protect themselves from infections of coronavirus and mentioned that scientifically cloth-made mask is equally effective to prevent the virus.
“We can reuse cloth-made masks after washing by detergents or soaps,” Nasima said.
The health official dubbed Dhaka, Narayanganj and Chattogram COVID-19 as “hotspots” because the maximum numbers of cases were detected in the three cities.
As of June 4, Dhaka city has been considered as the worst-affected with 18,671 COVID cases, according to Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR).
Among the COVID-19-prone districts, Chattogram, and Narayanganj, are the most hardest- hit ones with 2,781 and 2,409 cases respectively, according to the IEDCR data.
It was followed by Dhaka with 1,337, Gazipur with 1137, Cumilla with 1091, Cox’s Bazar with 734, Munshiganj with 933, Noakhali with 785 cases, Mymensingh with 497 cases and Rangpur with 479 cases.
Nasima said a total of 3, 72, 365 samples have so far been tested since the detection of the first COVID-19 cases in the country.
According to the DGHS, a total of 2, 97, 433 people were kept at both home and institutional quarantine and 2, 40,114 people were released from quarantine, while the number of people who are now in quarantine is 57,319.
It said a total of 629 institutions have been prepared across the country for keeping over 31,991 people in quarantine, adding nearly 6,946 people have now been kept in isolation.
The government has collected 25, 09,142 PPE so far, of which over 22,16 ,575 were distributed and 2,92,667 are in stock.
The DGHS sources said till today, nearly 96,00,758 people received healthcare services from hotline mobile numbers and health web portals as the government formed a group of medical professionals to provide emergency health services.
To receive information and treatment facilities on COVID-19, the contact hotline and mobile numbers are 16263; 333; 10655 and 01944333222.
As of June 5, 2020, 10:01 GMT, 393,540 have died so far from the COVID-19 outbreak and there are 6,720,315 currently confirmed cases in 212 countries and territories, according to Worldometer, a reference website that provides counters and real-time statistics for diverse topics.
China was the world’s first country which on January 11 reported the first death from the novel coronavirus in Wuhan, the capital of Central China’s Hubei province.