DHAKA, June 15, 2020 (BSS) – Bangladesh today reported recovery of a total of 34,027 novel coronavirus (COVID-19) patients, which is 37.55 percent of total infections, since the outbreak of the deadly virus in the country on March 8.
“A total of 34,027 COVID-19 patients have so far been cured since March 8, the day the country first detected the virus cases,” Additional Director General of Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) Prof Nasima Sultana told a virtual media briefing at DGHS in the city.
Nasima said 38 more fatalities were reported from the coronavirus in the last 24 hours, raising the death toll from the pandemic to 1209.
“The tally of infections has also surged to 90,619 after 3,099 new COVID-19 cases were detected in the last 24 hours,” she said.
Among the total infections, 1.33 percent died so far since the first COVID-19 positive cases were reported in the country, the health official said.
She also informed that a total of 15,038 samples were tested at 58 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 urged the people to abide by health rules to protect themselves from the infection of the deadly virus. “We’ve to be aware… Health protection measures are the best remedies to prevent the pandemic,” she added.
She 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 38 deaths, 32 are male and six female, Nasima said adding, three are in their 20s, three in their 30s, seven in their 40s, five in their 50s, 15 in their 60s and five in their 70s.
According to the division-wise data, 18 deaths took place in Dhaka division and 12 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 13, Dhaka city has been considered as the worst-affected with 23,339 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 3562 and 2,926 cases respectively, according to the IEDCR data.
It was followed by Dhaka district, excluding city areas, with 1968 cases, Cumilla district with city areas 1519 cases, Munshiganj district with 1498 cases, Cox’s Bazar district with 1301 cases, Gazipur district including city areas with 1258 cases, Noakhali district with 997 cases, Mymensingh district including city areas with 840 cases, Faridpur district with 695 cases, Sylhet district including city areas with 676 cases, and Rangpur district including city areas with 619 cases.
She said a total of 5,16,503 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, 23,358 people were kept at both home and institutional quarantine and 2,61,689 people were released from quarantine, while the number of people who are now in quarantine is 61,669.
It said a total of 629 institutions have been prepared across the country for keeping over 31,991 people in quarantine, adding nearly 10,026 people have now been kept in isolation.
The government has collected 24, 85,142 PPE so far, of which over 23,0, 9,925 were distributed and 1, 75,217 are in stock, the DGHS said.
It said till today, nearly 1,13,10,820 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 15, 2020, 09:36 GMT, 435,988 have died so far from the COVID-19 outbreak and there are 8,013,963 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.