Bangladesh has confirmed 16 more Covid-19 patient deaths in the last 24 hours, taking the death toll from the infection in the country to 314.
The death toll crossed the 200 mark on May 8, just three weeks after registering the first 100 fatalities on April 20.
Another 930 people tested positive for the deadly disease yesterday, out of 6,782 samples examined in 33 of 41 labs. The total number of cases now stands at 20,995.
Additional Director General (Administration) of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) Prof Nasima Sultana revealed the latest figures in a daily online bulletin on the Covid-19 situation yesterday afternoon.
The new cases were detected from tests at 12 out of 20 labs in Dhaka and 21 outside Dhaka, she said.
“We are yet to receive test results from the other [eight] labs in Dhaka city,” she said in the bulletin around 2:35pm.
A press release issued by the DGHS later in the day did not update the figures.
Around 235 people fully recovered from Covid-19 in the country over the past 24-hours, pushing up the tally of recoveries to 4,117.
Covid-19 situation in Bangladesh | |
Total deaths | 314 |
Total cases | 20,995 |
Total recoveries | 4,117 |
New deaths | 16 |
New cases | 930 |
New recoveries | 235 |
New tests | 6,782 |
Source: DGHS
The DGHS official said that all the 16 new deceased were men. Of them, seven were from Dhaka city alone.
As per the revised guidelines provided by the Clinical Management Committee of the health authorities, 4,117 people so far have won the fight against coronavirus.
’10,000 samples to be tested per day from late May’
At a program in Dhaka yesterday, Health Minister Zahid Maleque said the government was planning to raise its daily Covid-19 testing capacity to at least 10,000 by the end of this month, when another 20 test labs will start operation.
On Thursday, he had said the number of tests would gradually be increased to 15,000 sometime soon.
Dhaka continues to be centre of pandemic
Of the 16 new deaths announced yesterday, 12 (75%) were in Dhaka division, with seven in the capital city alone.
Among the deceased, seven were aged 51-60, five were in the 41-50 age group, three were aged 61-70, one was over the age of 70 and the other was in his 30s. All were male.
Highest number of cases in a week
Bangladesh yesterday completed its 10th week since the first three Covid-19 patients were confirmed on March 8. In the first seven weeks of the coronavirus outbreak in the country, till April 25, a total of 4,998 cases were confirmed.
However 3,972 cases were confirmed in the eighth week (April 26-May 2), and 4,980 in the ninth (May 2-May 9). In the 10th week, from May 10 till yesterday, a mammoth 7,225 cases of Covid-19 were confirmed.
In the eighth week, the government confirmed 35 fatalities, and the weekly death toll almost tripled to 100 in the 10th week.
On March 8, the 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. The virus broke out in China's Wuhan in December last year and quickly spread throughout the world, becoming a pandemic in less than three months.
The fast spreading coronavirus has claimed 308,853 lives and infected 4,641,975 people across the world till 3:20pm on Saturday, according to Worldometer.
As many as 1,768,005 people have recovered from Covid-19 which has spread to 213 countries and territories across the planet.