Confirmed coronavirus infection cases have crossed the 10,000 mark in Bangladesh as the country recorded the highest single-day cases with 688 more people testing positive in the last 24 hours.
With the latest figure, the number of total confirmed cases jumped to 10,143.
The country also witnessed deaths of five more people from Covid-19 over the same period, taking the number of fatalities to 182 in the country.
Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) Additional Director General (Administration) Prof Nasima Sultana revealed the latest figures in a daily online bulletin on Covid-19, Monday afternoon.
She said: “Most of the infected are from Dhaka division.”
More tests, more positive
She said as many as 6,315 samples have been collected in the past 24 hours and of those, 6,260 have been tested in 33 laboratories across the country, taking the total number of tests conducted so far to 87,694.
The rate of sample collection and testing are 21.11% and 16.61% higher respectively, than the previous day, she said.
The DGHS official said all the five deceased were men. Of them, three were from Dhaka, and one each from Sylhet and Mymensingh.
Three of them were above 60 years old, while one was between 50 and 60, and the other was 31 to 40 years of age, she said.
More than 100 recover in past 24 hours
In the briefing, Prof Nasima also revealed that 147 Covid-19 patients have recovered from the infection in the past 24 hours.
Of them, 13 were released from Kuwait Bangladesh Friendship Government Hospital, 11 from Kurmitola General Hospital, seven from Dhaka Metropolitan Hospital, 13 from Central Police Hospital in Rajarbag, four from Mirpur Lalkuthi General Hospital, 14 from Mugda Medical College and Hospital, and 14 from Combined Military Hospital (CMH).
Also, three were released from hospitals in Rajshahi division, seven in Chittagong division, four in Rangpur division, 11 in Dhaka division, and 17 in Mymensingh division.
As per the revised guidelines provided by the newly formed Clinical Management Committee of the health authorities, so far 1,210 people have won the fight against coronavirus.
Covid-19 situation in Bangladesh | |
Total deaths | 182 |
Total cases | 10,143 |
Total recoveries | 1,209 |
Total tests | 87,694 |
New deaths | 5 |
New cases | 688 |
New recoveries | 147 |
New tests | 6,260 |
Source: DGHS
Nasima said: “90 people were put under institutional isolation in the last 24 hours. Currently 1,636 people are in isolation across the country.
“Meanwhile, 2,742 people have been quarantined in the past 24 hours. Till now 195,334 people have been quarantined across the country, of which 153,401 have been released.”
Screening efforts at entry points increased
The DGHS official also said that screening efforts at the country’s land ports, sea ports, and airports to detect coronavirus patients have been increased.
“In the last 24 hours, we have screened 573 passengers coming into Bangladesh through the various entry points of the country. So far we have screened 678,853 travellers for coronavirus.”
Nasima also told the press that, so far 1,889,362 PPEs have been collected and at least 1,490,193 have been distributed across the country.
“We have 399,169 PPEs in stock now,” she added.
On March 8, health authorities in Bangladesh reported the first case of Covid-19, a severe acute respiratory illness caused by a new strain of coronavirus named Sars-CoV-2 that broke out in China's Wuhan in December last year and quickly spread throughout the world, becoming a pandemic in less than three months.
Till now the fast spreading coronavirus has claimed more than 249,000 lives and infected more than 3,590,000 people globally, according to Worldometer.
As many as 1,165,871 people have recovered from Covid-19, which has spread to 210 countries and territories across the world.