Health authorities have confirmed that another 34 Covid-19 patients died in the last 24 hours, taking the death toll from the deadly disease to 1,695 in Bangladesh.
Between Friday and Saturday mornings, 3,504 more people also tested positive for Covid-19, raising the total number of confirmed cases in the country to 133,978.
Sharing the latest data, Prof Nasima Sultana, an additional director general (administration) of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), said that at present the total infection rate against the number of total tests was 18.81%.
Addressing the daily online briefing from Dhaka on Saturday afternoon, she also said that 1,185 people recovered from the disease in the last 24 hours.
So far, a total of 54,318 patients — 40.54% of all infected — made full recovery around the country, since the first Covid-19 cases were recorded on March 8.
Of the 34 new deceased, 32 were men and two women. Thirty died in different hospitals and four at home.
Of the total, 13 died in Dhaka division, 10 in Chittagong, four each in Rajshahi and Sylhet, two in Rangpur, and one in Khulna, said Prof Nasima.
She added that the mortality rate was 1.27% against total cases detected so far.
Daily test positivity over 23%
DGHS official Prof Nasima said as many as 15,059 samples were collected from suspected Covid-19 patients around the country in the last 24 hours.
During the same period, 15,157 samples including previous collections were tested in 58 labs across the country, and 3,504 of them or 23.12% tested positive, she said.
In total, 712,098 tests have been conducted so far — of which 18.81% tested positive, she added.
A new Covid-19 testing lab started operating — Chevron Clinical Laboratory Pte. Ltd — in Chittagong on Saturday, taking the total number of labs to 67 across the country.
Prof Nasima said 726 more people were taken to isolation between Friday and Saturday mornings across the country, while 259 were released. Currently, 14,267 people are in isolation around the country.
Till Saturday, 24,093 people were sent into isolation, and 9,826 released.
In the last 24 hours, another 2,312 people were put in quarantine and 2,520 were released. At present, 63,913 people are quarantined across the country.
Till Saturday, 355,181 people were quarantined, and 291,268 released.
No permanent lockdown in red zones
Talking about the recently introduced zoning system to combat the spread of Covid-19, Prof Nasima said the red zone areas will not be under a permanent lockdown.
“It is a continuous process. Zoning system is nothing permanent, a red zone area will not be locked down forever.
“A letter has been sent to the relevant authorities for locking down Wari area. Besides, East Razabazar has been put under lockdown,” she said.
She also mentioned that the 13-member committee responsible for dividing the country into the red, yellow, and green zones, was headed by DGHS Director General Dr Abul Kalam Azad.
Hospitals and PPEs
“The government now has 153,181 personal protective equipment (PPE) in reserve. And till now, we have distributed 2,375,064 PPEs to frontline workers,” the DGHS official said.
“There are also enough general and ICU beds available in all hospitals dedicated for Covid-19 treatment,” she claimed.
There are 16 hospitals dedicated for coronavirus patients in the capital and another in Dhaka district. The dedicated hospitals in Dhaka city have 4,293 general and 79 ICU (Intensive Care Unit) beds.
Other dedicated hospitals across the country have 12,073 general and 275 ICU beds in total.
Across the country, 4,225 general and 112 ICU beds are occupied, said Prof Nasima.
She also claimed: “Beds are empty in all dedicated hospitals. Anyone can call the DGHS control room for information or to get support for admission in any of the hospitals.”
Looking back
On March 8, health authorities in Bangladesh had 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 country recorded its first fatality on March 18.
On June 10, Covid-19 deaths in Bangladesh had crossed the 1,000 mark, and on June 18, number of total cases had crossed the 100,000 mark.
On June 17, the country had recorded 4,008 cases, which is the highest in a 24-hour span till now.
The day before, 53 deaths were recorded, which is the highest in a single day till now.
The novel coronavirus had broken 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.
Until Saturday evening, the fast spreading virus infected more than 9.94 million people and claimed over 497,600 lives in 213 countries and territories across the globe, according to worldometer.
Dhaka Tribune’s Tanjir Rahman contributed to this report