Bangladesh has had the lowest Covid-19 sample collection in a 24-hour span in nearly two months.
The development came as some 9,615 samples of suspected patients were collected between Friday and Saturday mornings.
It is the lowest sample collection in two months. The last time Bangladesh collected less than 10,000 samples was on May 28 (9,310).
As many as 10,446 samples, including the pending ones, were tested in the authorized labs across the country and 2,520 new patients were confirmed in the last 24 hours. The latest figures give an infection rate of 24.12%.
To date, at least 1,101,480 tests have been conducted in the country with a whopping 20.08% infection rate so far.
Additional Director General (Administration) of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), Prof Nasima Sultana, speaking at a daily online bulletin on the Covid-19 situation, asked people with symptoms of Covid-19, or those who have come in contact with Covid-19 patients, to go for coronavirus testing.
All the districts, upazilas, and cities have sample collection facilities, she said, urging people to go for testing to help the country fight Covid-19.
38 die, 2,520 new cases in 24hrs
Bangladesh recorded 38 more deaths from Covid-19 in the last 24 hours, taking the number of total fatalities to 2,874.
As many as 2,520 people tested positive for the coronavirus infection over the same period, taking the total number of confirmed cases to 221,178.
DGHS Additional Director General (Administration) Prof Nasima Sultana said, of the 38 deceased - 29 of them men - 17 were from Dhaka division, eight from Rajshahi, four each from Chittagong and Khulna, three from Mymensingh, and one each from Sylhet and Rangpur divisions.
Of them, 34 died in hospital, three at home, and one was brought dead to the hospital.
The fatalities include three people between 31 and 40 years of age, six aged between 41 to 50 years, seven between 51 to 60 years, eight between 61 and 70 years, nine aged between 71 and 80 years, four aged 81 and 90 years and one person above 100 years.
Of the total deceased, 18 (.63%) were below 10 years of age, 30 were between 11 and 20 years (1.04%), 82 (2.85%) between 21 and 30 years, 194 (6.75%) between 31 and 40 years, 407 (14.16%) between 41 and 50 years, 837 (29.12%) between 51 and 60 years, and the highest, 1306 (45.44%) were above the age of 60.
So far, 2,266 (78.84%) men and 608 (21.16%) women have died from Covid-19 across the country.
The mortality rate against the total number of cases detected so far stands at 1.30%.
Prof Nasima also said 1,114 people recovered from the disease in the preceding 24 hours.
So far, a total of 122,090 patients — 55.20% of all infected — have made full recovery across the country.
Situation at Covid-19 dedicated hospitals
In the Dhaka metropolitan area, 2,160 patients are currently hospitalized and 171 are admitted in Intensive Care Units (ICUs).
In the Chittagong metropolitan area, 331 patients are currently hospitalized and 22 are admitted in ICUs.
Nasima said 649 people had been sent into isolation in the last 24 hours, and currently, 19,202 people were in isolation.
On March 8, health authorities in Bangladesh reported the first three cases of Covid-19, a severe acute respiratory illness caused by a new coronavirus strain which was later named Sars-CoV-2.
The novel coronavirus broke out in China's Wuhan city in late December last year and quickly spread throughout the world, becoming a pandemic in less than three months.
The fast-spreading coronavirus has claimed 643,451 lives and infected 15,974,337 people across the world till 6pm on Saturday, according to Worldometer.
As many as 9,766,785 people have recovered from Covid-19 which has spread to 213 countries and territories across the planet.