DHAKA, June 17, 2020 (BSS) – Bangladesh today recorded 43 more fatalities from the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) overnight, increasing the death toll from the pandemic to 1305.
“The tally of infections has also surged to 98,489 after 4,008 new cases, the steepest jump in a single day, were confirmed in the 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 38,189 after another 1925 patients were discharged from the hospitals during the period.
Among the total infections, 38.77 percent patients have recovered, while 1.33 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 17,527 samples were tested at 59 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 urged the people to abide by health rules to protect themselves from the infection of the deadly virus. “We’ve to be aware more (about the health codes) … 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 43 deaths, 28 are male and 15 female, Nasima said adding, one is in his 20s, four in their 30s, four in their 40s, nine in their 50s, 12 in their 60s, nine in their 70s, two in their 80s while one is below 10 and one between 11 to 20 years.
According to the division-wise data, 21 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 15, Dhaka city has been considered as the worst-affected with 24,187 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 3768 and 3011 cases respectively, according to the IEDCR data.
It was followed by Dhaka district, excluding city areas, with 2052 cases, Cumilla district with city areas 1854 cases, Munshiganj district with 1558 cases, Cox’s Bazar district with 1411 cases, Gazipur district including city areas with 1278 cases, Noakhali district with 1057 cases, Mymensingh district including city areas with 878 cases, Faridpur district with 734 cases, Sylhet district including city areas with 677 cases and Rangpur district including city areas with 651 cases.
She said a total of 5,51,244 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, 29,820 people were kept at both home and institutional quarantine and 2,67,330 people were released from quarantine, while the number of people who are now in quarantine is 62,490.
It said a total of 629 institutions have been prepared across the country for keeping over 31,991 people in quarantine, adding nearly 10,752 people have now been kept in isolation.
The government has collected 25, 24,285 PPE so far, of which over 23,34,500 were distributed and 1, 90,280 are in stock, the DGHS said.
It said till today, nearly 1,16,59,879 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 17, 2020, 10:30 GMT, 446,663 have died so far from the COVID-19 outbreak and there are 8,286,524 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.