DHAKA, July 2, 2020 (BSS) – Bangladesh today recorded 4,019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19) cases overnight and reported 4,334 recoveries, the highest in a single day.
The death toll from the pandemic has spiked to 1,926 as 38 more COVID-19 patients died in the last 24 hours, a top health official said.
“The tally of infections has surged to 1, 53,277 as 4,019 new cases were confirmed during the period, ” 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 66,444 after another 4,334 patients were discharged from the hospitals in the 24 hours.
The health official also informed that a total of 18,362 samples were tested at 70 authorised laboratories across the country during the time.
Among the total infections, 43.35 percent patients have recovered while 1.26 percent died so far since the first COVID-19 positive cases were reported in the country on March 8, she said.
Bangladesh confirmed the first coronavirus death on March 18, ten days after the detection of the first COVID-19 case.
Brushing aside the shortage of beds and ICUs for the COVID-19 patients, Nasima said there are 6075 beds and 145 ICUs in 16 COVID-19 dedicated hospital in Dhaka city.
At present, a total of 2,375 coronavirus patients have been admitted to these hospitals, while 97 patients remain at the ICUs, she added.
There are 14,475 beds and 392 ICUs in the country, the health official said, adding now 4628 patients are undergoing treatment at these hospitals and 210 were admitted to the ICUs.
“So, there is no scarcity of ICUs and beds in the hospital for COVID-19 patients,” she added.
Nasima 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 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), the health official 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.
The health official dubbed Dhaka, Narayanganj and Chattogram as COVID-19 “hotspots” because the maximum numbers of cases were detected in the three cities.
Among the 38 deaths, 32 are male and six female, Nasima said adding, one is in his 20s, two in their 30s, two in their 40s, 16 in their 50s, eight in their 60s, seven in their 70s and two in their 80s.
According to the division-wise data, 11 deaths took place in Dhaka division, 12 in Chattogram division, five in Khulna division and five in Rajshahi division while rests are in other divisions.
As of July 2, among the COVID-19-prone districts, Chattogram district including city areas and Narayanganj including city areas are the most hardest- hit ones with 8,035 and 5148 cases respectively, according to the IEDCR data.
It was followed by Cumilla district with 3670, Gazipur district including city areas with 3270 cases, Dhaka district, excluding city areas, with 3106 cases, Sylhet district including city areas with 2153 cases, Cox’s Bazar district with 2,506 cases, Noakhali district with 2189 cases, Faridpur district with 2041 cases, Munshiganj district with 1944 cases, Mymensingh district including city areas with 1889 cases, Khulna district including city areas with 1786, Barishal district including city areas with 1557, Narsingdi district with 1280 cases, and Kishoreganj district with 1083 cases.
She said a total of 8,0,2697 samples have so far been tested since the detection of the first COVID-19 cases in the country.
A total of 3, 66,189 people were kept at both home and institutional quarantine and 3, 0,5,581 people were released from quarantine, while the number of people who are now in quarantine is 66,608.
It said a total of 632 institutions have been prepared across the country for keeping over 31,991 people in quarantine, adding nearly 15,757 people have now been kept in isolation.
The government has collected 25, 28,285 PPE so far, of which over 24,02,064 were distributed and 1,26,181 are in stock, the DGHS said.
It said 1,42,64,444 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 July 2, 2020, 10.25 GMT, 519,571 have died so far from the COVID-19 outbreak and there are 10,833,111 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.