At least 24 people undergoing treatment at the Covid-19 unit of Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) have died since Saturday.
According to hospital sources, of the 24 dead, four had tested positive for the deadly virus.
Currently as many as 90 people are admitted at the hospital’s coronavirus unit, which opened on Sunday, with symptoms of the virus and other complications.
Meanwhile, nine persons have returned home after recovery till Monday, added the sources.
The four who tested positive and died at the hospital are Khorsheda Begum, 50, Mostofa Ali, 50, Rohoman Ali, 70, and Sufia Begum, 55.
However, DMCH Director Brig Gen Dr AKM Nasir Uddin told this correspondent on Monday that a total of 19 people had died at the coronavirus unit of the hospital since Sunday.
“From Saturday till today [Monday] 19 people have died while undergoing treatment at DMCH’s freshly opened coronavirus unit. Of those who died two were found Covid-19 positive,” he said.
Earlier on Saturday, the hospital authorities converted the old burn unit building in front of the emergency department of DMCH into a Covid-19 treatment facility.
An Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and an isolation unit were also set up to provide treatment to coronavirus patients.
Following the move, all patients of the burn unit were transferred to the Sheikh Hasina National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery near the DMCH.
As of Monday, Bangladesh had confirmed 10,143 coronavirus cases, with the death toll rising to 182 after five new fatalities were reported.
The fast spreading Covid-19 has so far killed 248,000 people in more than 200 countries and territories.