Celebrating Eid-ul-Fitr in subdued fashion, Bangladesh has reached the grim milestone of 500 deaths from Covid-19 in the last 24 hours.
As many as 21 new deaths were reported until Monday morning, taking the toll to 501 in the country after the first fatality was reported on March 18.
The death toll accounts for 1.41% of the total infected.
On Eid day, the country recorded the highest number of coronavirus cases in a single day, with 1,975 people having tested positive in the past 24 hours.
With the latest figure, the number of total confirmed cases reached 35,585.
Additional Director General (Administration) of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), Prof Nasima Sultana, revealed the latest figures from Dhaka on Monday afternoon, in a daily online bulletin on the Covid-19 situation.
Prof Nasima, DGHS acting director general (DG), said of the deceased -- 16 men and five women -- 11 were from Dhaka division, nine from Chittagong division, and one from Rangpur division, she said.
Reporting the deaths by age, Prof Nasima said, one was between 11 and 20 years old, three were between the ages of 41 and 50, nine were 51 to 60 years of age, four were between 61 and 70, two were aged 71 to 80, and two were between 81 to 90 years of age.
Bangladesh recorded the highest number of Covid-19 deaths (28) in a single day on May 24. Deaths from coronavirus infection were more than 400 in the country by May 21.
The country crossed the 100-mark in deaths on April 20.
She said as many as 11,541 samples were collected in the past 24 hours. Of those, 9,451 were tested in 48 labs -- 25 in Dhaka -- across the country.
In all, 253,034 tests have been conducted so far, she said.
On May 23, Bangladesh recorded 1,873 Covid-19 cases -- highest in a 24-hour span, since the first cases reported back in March.
Covid-19 situation in Bangladesh | |
Total deaths | 501 |
Total cases | 35,585 |
Total recoveries | 7,334 |
Total tests | 253,034 |
New deaths | 21 |
New cases | 1,975 |
New recoveries | 433 |
New tests | 9,451 |
Source: DGHS
433 more recover
In the briefing, the DGHS acting DG also said that 433 more Covid-19 patients had recovered from the infection in the last 24 hours.
So far 7,334 people (20.61% of all infected) have made full recovery after being infected by the novel coronavirus.
Nasima said: "284 people were put into institutional isolation in the last 24 hours. As many as 4,653 individuals are now in isolation, while 2,258 others have been released so far.
"Some 2,384 people have been put in home and institutional quarantine over the past 24 hours. Till now, 265,863 people have been quarantined across the country, of whom 210,458 have been released."
Nasima also told the press that so far, 2,454,737 personal protective equipment (PPE) have been collected and at least 2,066,334 have been distributed across the country.
"We have 388,403 PPE in stock now."
'Wear mask'
In the briefing, Additional Director General (Planning and Development) Sanya Tahmina Jhora has urged people to wear masks for protection from Covid-19 infection.
Terming it a rule of thumb, she said: "Whenever you go out, you must wear a mask. Maintain social distancing.
"We must wash our hands with soap and water repeatedly and refrain from touching our eyes, mouth and nose until we wash our hands properly," she added.
On March 8, health authorities in Bangladesh reported the first case of Covid-19, a severe acute respiratory illness caused by the new strain of coronavirus, 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 346,949 lives and infected 5,516,842 people across the world till 3:20pm on Monday, according to Worldometer.
As many as 2,310,215 people have recovered from Covid-19 which has spread to 213 countries and territories across the planet.