DHAKA, June 13, 2020 (BSS) – Bangladesh today reported 44 more fatalities from the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in a daily count, raising the death toll from the pandemic to 1139.
“The tally of infections has also spiralled to 84,379 after 2856 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 17,827 after another 578 patients were released from hospitals in the same period.
Among the total infections, 21.13 percent patients have recovered while 1.35 percent died so far since the first COVID-19 positive cases were reported in the country on March 8, the health official said.
She also informed that a total of 16,638 samples, the highest in a single day, 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.
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 44 deaths, 33 are male and 11 female, Nasima said adding, one is in his 20s while six are in their 30s, five in their 40s, 11 in their 50s, 11 in their 60s, seven in their 70s and three in their 80s.
According to the division-wise data, 19 deaths took place in Dhaka division and 13 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 11, Dhaka city has been considered as the worst-affected with 22,565 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 3404 and 2875 cases respectively, according to the IEDCR data.
It was followed by Dhaka district, excluding city areas, with 1867 cases, Cumilla district with city areas 1410 cases, Munshiganj district with 1385 cases, Gazipur district including city areas with 1228 cases, Cox’s Bazar district with 1194 cases, Noakhali district with 970 cases, Mymensingh district including city areas with 792 cases, Sylhet district including city areas with 676 cases, Faridpur district with 589 cases and Rangpur including city areas with 580 cases.
She said a total of 4, 89, 907 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 3,17,644 people were kept at both home and institutional quarantine and 2,56,859 people were released from quarantine, while the number of people who are now in quarantine is 60,785.
It said a total of 629 institutions have been prepared across the country for keeping over 31,991 people in quarantine, adding nearly 9,340 people have now been kept in isolation.
The government has collected 25, 09,142 PPE so far, of which over 22, 98,875 were distributed and 2, 10,268 are in stock, the DGHS said.
It said till today, nearly 1,09,70,318 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 13, 2020, 10:16 GMT, 428,652 have died so far from the COVID-19 outbreak and there are 7,758,627 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.