Bangladesh has logged 17 deaths from coronavirus in the 24 hours till Monday morning, taking the overall tally to 7,329.
The total number of coronavirus cases surged to 503,000 as the health authorities recorded 1,318 fresh cases in the 24-hour span.
The Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) disclosed the updated figures through a regular press release on Monday.
Of the total number of samples tested, 8.70% tested positive, whereas 16.21 % cases were detected from the total number of tests conducted so far, added the press release.
Deceased
Among the infections, 87.77% patients have recovered, while 1.46% have died since Bangladesh detected its first three Covid-19 positive cases on March 8.
Of the 17 victims, 11 were male, six female and 16 of them died in the hospital while one died at home.
Of the total number of deceased, 11 were aged above 60, four were above fifty and two in their 40s, the press release said.
The division-wise data show that nine deaths took place in Dhaka division, four in Chittagong, one each in Rajshahi, Khulna, Sylhet and Rangpur.
Of the 7,329 deaths, 4,005 deaths occurred in Dhaka division, 1,363 in Chittagong division, 430 in Rajshahi division, 518 in Khulna division, 235 in Barisal division, 290 in Sylhet division, 329 in Rangpur division, and 159 in Mymensingh division.
Recovery
The recovery count rose to 441,929 after another 2,235 patients were discharged from hospitals during the period.
Altogether 15,145 samples were tested at 161 authorized laboratories across the country during the time.
A total of 3,106,494 samples have so far been tested since the detection of the first Covid-19 cases in the country.
The DGHS said in order to make treatment facilities easily available for the Covid-19 patients, the government has introduced telemedicine services comprising 100 physicians round- the-clock in the country.
A total of 643,509 people have so far received healthcare services from telemedicine.
The DGHS said 23,217,219 people received healthcare services from hotline mobile numbers and health web portals as the government had formed a group of medical professionals to provide emergency healthcare services.
To receive information and treatment facilities on Covid-19, the contact hotline and mobile numbers are 16263; 333 and 10655.
Global situation
On March 8, the 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 1,711,177 lives and infected 77,804,369 people across the world till Monday afternoon, according to Worldometer.
As many as 54,688,559 people have recovered from Covid-19, which has spread to 218 countries and territories across the planet.
