Bangladesh saw 51 deaths from Covid-19 in the past 24 hours, taking the overall death toll from the pandemic in the country to 2,547 on Friday.
This is the highest single-day death toll from Covid-19 in the last 10 days, with the overall highest number of deaths on a single day being recorded at 64 on June 30.
It took Bangladesh just under four months to cross the grim 2,500 deaths mark, with the first cases in the country confirmed on March 8 and the first death on March 18. The mortality rate is 1.28% of the total cases so far detected.
Bangladesh currently has the second highest number of active cases in Asia, only behind India.
Additional Director General (Administration) of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) Prof Nasima Sultana revealed the latest figures in the daily online bulletin on the Covid-19 situation on Friday afternoon.
She also said 3,034 fresh cases of Covid-19 were confirmed from 13,460 tests on the day, resulting in a confirmation rate of 22.50%. The total number of cases in the country now stands at 199,357.
According to the DGHS, a total 1,762 people had recovered from the disease in the last 24 hours, taking the tally of recoveries to 108,725 patients - 54.54% of total infected across the country.
Prof Nasima said, of the 51 deceased 40 are men and 11 women – 13 are from Dhaka division, 16 from Chittagong, six each from Barisal and Khulna, four from Rangpur and three each from Rajshahi and Sylhet.
Among the victims, 42 died at different hospitals and nine at home, she added.
Increasing pace of deaths
It took almost 34 days to register 100 deaths in Bangladesh and 69 days to register 500 deaths.
On May 25, Bangladesh crossed 500 deaths from Covid-19. Over 2,000 deaths in the next 53 days means there has been an average of 500 deaths every two weeks since the first 500 deaths.
Among the deceased, 78.96% are males and 21.04% are females.
Almost half of the patients (49.28%) died in Dhaka and over a quarter (25.72%) in Chittagong.
Meanwhile, 5.89% and 5.14% of the total deaths were recorded in Khulna and Rajshahi, respectively.
DGHS data shows that people aged over 60 years (44.05%) make up most of the victims of the disease in the country. They are followed by the 41-60 age group (44.09%).
About 5% of the deceased were under 40.
The country has completed 1,006,751 tests in the four months and ten days since the first cases were detected.
Vacancies at hospitals but not ICUs in Dhaka
In the Dhaka Metropolitan area, 1,969 patients are currently hospitalized and 4,356 general beds are vacant. Only 35 intensive care units are vacant and 107 are occupied.
In the Chittagong Metropolitan area, 310 patients are currently hospitalized and 347 of the general beds are vacant. Only 20 intensive care units are vacant and 19 are occupied.
At the other dedicated hospitals across the country, there are 1,800 people hospitalized and 5,933 general beds vacant. A total of 84 patients are currently in ICUs, while 111 ICUs are vacant
“Bangladesh has a total of 11,280 oxygen cylinders across the country,” Prof Nasima Sultana said.
A further 2,261 people have been put in a home or institutional quarantine, taking the total number of people in quarantine to 60,226.
A total 345,304 people have been quarantined in the country.
Some 2,242 people have been screened in the last 24 hours at airports, railway stations and sea ports. The authorities till now have screened some 760,785 people since February 1, when 312 Bangladeshis returned from Wuhan.
Covid-19 in Bangladesh so far
On March 8, health authorities in Bangladesh reported the first three cases of Covid-19, a severe acute respiratory illness caused by the new coronavirus strain Sars-CoV-2.
The country recorded its first fatality on March 18.
On June 10, Covid-19 deaths in Bangladesh crossed the 1,000 mark, and on June 18, the number of total cases crossed the 100,000 mark.
On June 30, the country recorded 64 deaths, which is the highest in a 24-hour span till now.
On July 2, a total of 4,019 positive cases were recorded, which is the highest detection 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.
The fast-spreading coronavirus has claimed 593,016 lives and infected 13,961,716 people across the world till Friday afternoon, according to Worldometer.
As many as 8,294,752 people have recovered from Covid-19 which has spread to 213 countries and territories across the planet.
