DHAKA, July 16, 2020 (BSS) – Bangladesh today recorded 39 novel coronavirus (COVID-19) deaths and 2,733 fresh cases overnight.
The recovery count rose to 1, 06,963 after another 1,940 patients were discharged from the hospitals during the period, a top health official said.
“Thirty-nine more COVID-19 patients died in the last 24 hours, increasing the death toll from the pandemic to 2,496,” Additional Director General of Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) Prof Nasima Sultana told a virtual media briefing at DGHS in the city this afternoon.
She said the tally of infections has surged to 1, 96,323 as 2,733 new cases were confirmed in the last 24 hours.
The health official also informed that a total of 12,889 samples were tested at 80 authorized laboratories across the country during the time.
Among the total infections, 54.48 percent patients have recovered while 1.27 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 14,664 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 39 deaths, 31 are male and eight female, Nasima said adding, two are in their 30s, three in his 40s, 12 in their 50s, 15 in their 60s, four in their 70s and one in his 80s while one is between 10 to 20 and one below 10 years.
According to the division-wise data, 18 deaths took place in Dhaka division, six in Chattogram division, six in Khulna while rests are in other divisions.
Of the total 2,496 deaths, 1,242 are in Dhaka Division, 639 in Chattogram division, 118 in Rajshahi division, 144 in Khulna division, 91 in Barishal division, 113 in Sylhet division, 83 in Rangpur division and 56 in Mymensingh division.
As of July 14, among the COVID-19-prone districts, Dhaka district including city areas, Chattogram district including city areas and Narayanganj district including city areas are the most hardest- hit ones with, 38,324, 11,597 and 5,618 cases respectively, according to the IEDCR data.
It was followed by Cumilla district with 4167 cases, Gazipur district including city areas with 3890 cases, Bogura district with 3763 cases, Sylhet district including city areas with 3070 cases, Khulna district including city areas with 3030cases, Cox’s Bazar district with 2,971 cases, Noakhali district with 2571 cases, Munshiganj district with 2503 cases, Faridpur district with 2,444 cases, Mymensingh district including city areas with 2052 cases, Kishorganj district with 1758 cases, Barishal district including city areas with 1686, Narsingdi district with 1592 cases, Brahmanbaria district with 1505, Chandpur district with 1,299 and Sunamganj district with 1170 cases.
She said a total of 9,93,291 samples have so far been tested since the detection of the first COVID-19 cases in the country.
A total of 4, 03,269 people were kept at both home and institutional quarantine and 3, 42,457 people were released from quarantine, while the number of people who are now in quarantine is 60,812.
It said a total of 632 institutions have been prepared across the country for keeping over 31,991 people in quarantine, adding nearly 18,031 people have now been kept in isolation.
It said 1,66,25,464 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 16, 2020, 10.25 GMT, 587,528 have died so far from the COVID-19 outbreak and there are 13,720,581 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.