ZCZC
BSS-17
COVID-19-BRIEFING LEAD
Bangladesh reports 37 more virus deaths, 3187 cases
(updates with more information)
DHAKA, June 11, 2020 (BSS) – Bangladesh today reported 37 more fatalities from the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in a daily count, raising the death toll from the pandemic to 1049.
“The tally of infections has also spiralled to 78,052 after 3,187 new COVID-19 cases were detected in the last 24 hours,” Additional Director General of Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) Prof Nasima Sultana told a virtual media briefing at DGHS in the city.
She said the recovery count rose to 16,747 after another 848 patients were released from hospitals in the same period.
Among the total infections, 21.46 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 15,772 samples were tested at 55 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.
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.
Referring to latest health directives of the World Health Organization (WHO), 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.
She 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.
Among the 37 deaths, 30 are male and seven female, Nasima said, adding two are in their 30s, four in their 40s, eight in their 50s, 22 in their 60s and one in his 70s.
According to the division-wise data, 20 deaths took place in Dhaka division and seven in Chattogram division while rests are in other divisions.
The health official dubbed Dhaka, Narayanganj and Chattogram as COVID-19 “hotspots” because the maximum numbers of cases were detected in the three cities.
As of June 9, Dhaka city has been considered as the worst-affected with 21,495 COVID cases, according to Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR).
Among the COVID-19-prone districts, Chattogram district including city areas, and Narayanganj including city areas, are the most hardest- hit ones with 3277 and 2779 cases respectively, according to the IEDCR data.
It was followed by Dhaka district, excluding city areas, with 1655 cases, Munshiganj district including urban areas with 1381 cases, Gazipur district including city areas with 1187 cases, Cumilla district including city areas with 1279 cases, Cox’s Bazar district including urban areas with 1100 cases, Noakhali district including urban areas with 907 cases, Mymensingh district including city areas with 683 cases, Sylhet district including city areas with 676 cases, and Rangpur district including city areas with 550 cases.
She said a total of 4, 57, 332 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 3,12,344 people were kept at both home and institutional quarantine and 2,53,345 people were released from quarantine, while the number of people who are now in quarantine is 58,999.
It said a total of 629 institutions have been prepared across the country for keeping over 31,991 people in quarantine, adding nearly 8,764 people have now been kept in isolation.
The government has collected 25, 09,142 PPE so far, of which over 22, 83,575 were distributed and 2, 25,567 are in stock, the DGHS said.
It said till today, nearly 1,06,33,830 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 11, 2020, 09:28 GMT, 419,382 have died so far from the COVID-19 outbreak and there are 7,477,996 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.
BSS/ASG/MMR/SH/1555 hrs