DHAKA, July 14, 2020 (BSS) – The recovery count from the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in Bangladesh crossed one lakh mark overnight, while it recorded 33 more deaths from the deadly disease during the period.
“The number of recoveries from COVID-19 rose to 1,03,227 after another 4,910 patients were discharged from the hospitals in the last 24 hours,” Additional Director General of Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) Prof Nasima Sultana told a virtual media briefing at the DGHS in the city this afternoon.
Nasima said 33 more COVID-19 patients died at the same time, increasing the death toll from the pandemic to 2,424.
She said the tally of infections has surged to 1, 90,057 as 3,163 new cases were confirmed during the period.
The health official also informed that a total of 13,453 samples were tested at 79 authorised laboratories across the country in the last 24 hours.
Among the total infections, 54.31 percent patients have recovered while 1.28 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 cases.
Ruling out the shortage of beds and ICUs for the COVID-19 patients, Nasima said there are 6105 beds and 142 ICUs in 16 COVID-19 dedicated hospitals in Dhaka city.
The country has a total of 14,264 beds and 374 ICUs for the COVID-19 patients, the health official said, adding there is no scarcity of ICUs and beds in the hospital for COVID-19 patients.
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 33 deaths, 23 are male and 10 female, Nasima said adding, two are in their 30s, four in his 40s, six in their 50s, nine in their 60s, 11 in their 70s and one is in his 80s.
According to the division-wise data, 13 deaths took place in Dhaka division three in Chattogram division, five in Khulna and five in Sylhet division while rests are in other divisions.
Of the total 2,424 deaths, 1,208 are in Dhaka Division, 626 in Chattogram division, 125 in Rajshahi division, 133 in Khulna division, 89 in Barishal division, 110 in Sylhet division, 77 in Rangpur division and 56 in Mymensingh division.
As of July 12, among the COVID-19-prone districts, Chattogram district including city areas and Narayanganj including city areas are the most hardest- hit ones with 10,242 and 5,562 cases respectively, according to the IEDCR data.
It was followed by Cumilla district with 4167 cases, Gazipur district including city areas with 3713 cases, Bogura district with 3608 cases, Dhaka district, excluding city areas, with 3527 cases, Sylhet district including city areas with 3070 cases, Cox’s Bazar district with 2,687 cases, Munshiganj district with 2496 cases, Faridpur district with 2,444 cases, Khulna district including city areas with 2435 cases, Mymensingh district including city areas with 2052 cases, Kishorganj district with 1717 cases, Barishal district including city areas with 1686, Narsingdi district with 1592 cases and Rajshahi district including city areas with 1469 cases.
She said a total of 9,66,400 samples have so far been tested since the detection of the first COVID-19 cases in the country.
A total of 3, 98,305 people were kept at both home and institutional quarantine and 3, 36,662 people were released from quarantine, while the number of people who are now in quarantine is 61,643.
It said a total of 632 institutions have been prepared across the country for keeping over 31,991 people in quarantine, adding nearly 17,607 people have now been kept in isolation.
It said 1,63,93,348 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 14, 2020, 10.25 GMT, 576,240 have died so far from the COVID-19 outbreak and there are 13,265,069 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.