Bangladesh records over 100 COVID-19 deaths for 3rd straight day

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DHAKA, April 18, 2021 (BSS) – Bangladesh today recorded the highest number of 102 novel coronavirus (COVID-19) deaths for the third consecutive day since its first detection on March 8 last year while 3,698 fresh cases were reported during the period.

“The tally of infections has surged to 7,18,950 as 3,698 new cases were confirmed in the last 24 hours,” Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) said in its routine daily statement.

A total of 102 COVID-19 patients died in the last 24 hours increasing the death toll from the pandemic to 10,385.

It said 19.06 percent of the 19,404 samples collected in 24 hours were tested positive while the infection rate was only 2.30 percent just on February 8 this year as during the late winter season, the rate started decreasing sharply.

The samples were tested at 257 authorized medical laboratories across the country during the time as the government put in efforts to increase the number of testing centers gradually with resurgence of the pandemic.

The recovery count rose to 6,14,936 after another 6,121 patients were discharged from the hospitals during the past one day.

The DGHS statistics showed of the people infected from the beginning 85.53 percent recovered, while 1.44 percent died.

It said 68 out of the 102 died in Dhaka division alone and 59 of them were male while 43 were female and added that two are in their 30s, 14 in their 40s, 23 in their 50s while 63 are above 60 years.

Bangladesh recorded the highest number of COVID-19 fatality on June 30 last year when the virus killed 64 people in a day.

DGHS said the country logged 6,469 coronavirus positive cases on April 1, 6,830 on April 2, 5683 on April 3, 7087 on April 4, 7,075 on April 5, 7,213 April 6, 7,626 on April 7, 6,8 54 on April 8, 7,462 on April 9, 5,343 on April 10, 5,819 on April 11, 7,201 on April 12, 6,028 on April 13 and 5,185 on April 14 and 4,192 on April 15, 4,417 on April 16, 3,473 on April 17 and 3,698 on April 18.

According to month-wise statistics last year, 51 COVID-19 positive cases were detected in March 2020, 7616 in April, 39,486 in May, 98,330 in June, 92,178 in July, 75,335 in August, 50,483 in September, 44, 205 in October, 57,248 in November and 48,578 in December.

The beginning of the current year witnessed a drastic fall of coronavirus cases in the country but the trend lasted for only two months — 21,629 cases were detected in January and 11,077 in February.

The entire month of March witnessed a sharp increase of infection as the virus infected 65,079 people.

The DGHS said among the total 10,385 fatalities, 6,048 deaths occurred in Dhaka division, 1,873 in Chattogram, 549 in Rajshahi, 637 in Khulna, 310 in Barishal, 349 in Sylhet, 397 in Rangpur and 222 in Mymensingh division.

The DGHS said in order to make treatment facilities easily available for
the COVID-19 patients, the government has introduced telemedicine services comprising 100 physicians for round the clock in the country.

It added that 2,72,61,433 people received healthcare services from hotline
mobile numbers and health web portals as the government formed a group of medical professionals to provide emergency healthcare services.

To receive information and treatment facilities on COVID-19, the contact hotline and mobile numbers are 16263; 333; 10655 and 01944333222.

As of April 18, 2021, 11:31 GMT, 3,026,367 people have died so far from the COVID-19 outbreak and there are currently 141,408,657 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, 2020 reported the
first death from the novel coronavirus in Wuhan, the capital of Central
China’s Hubei province.