Bangladesh records highest virus deaths, recoveries

ZOOMBANGLA DESK: Bangladesh today recorded the highest number of deaths and recoveries from the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) overnight, BSS reports.

“Fifty-three more COVID-19 patients died in the past 24 hours, increasing the death toll from the pandemic to 1,262,” Additional Director General of Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) Prof Nasima Sultana told a virtual media briefing at DGHS in the city.

She said the recovery count rose to 36,264 after another 2237 patients, the highest in a single day, were discharged from the hospitals during the period.

The health official said the tally of infections has surged to 94,481 after 3,862 new cases, the steepest jump in a single day, were confirmed in the 24 hours.

Among the total infections, 38.38 percent patients have recovered, while 1.34 percent died so far since the first COVID-19 positive cases were reported in the country on March 8, she said.

Nasima also informed that a total of 17,214 samples, a record number in a day, were tested at 61 authorised labs across the country during that time.

Bangladesh confirmed the first coronavirus death on March 18, ten days after the detection of the first COVID-19 cases.

The health official urged the people to abide by health rules to protect themselves from the infection of the deadly virus. “We’ve to be aware… Health protection measures are the best remedies to prevent the pandemic,” she added.

She laid emphasis on maintaining three heath directives — wearing mask, physical distancing and washing hands by soap — to contain the spread of COVID-19.

Referring to latest health directives of the World Health Organization (WHO), Nasima said the people must wear masks to protect themselves from infections of coronavirus and mentioned that scientifically cloth-made mask is equally effective to prevent the virus.

“We can reuse cloth-made masks after washing by detergents or soaps,” she said.

The health official said nearly 75 percent COVID-19 patients are taking treatment from their homes, and many of them are being cured every day after receiving treatment through hotlines.

Among the 53 deaths, 47 are male and six female, Nasima said, adding three are in their 20s, two in their 30s, nine in their 40s, 19 in their 50s, 10 in their 60s, eight in their 70s and one is in his 80s while one is between 11 to 20 years.

According to the division-wise data, 30 deaths took place in Dhaka division and 14 in Chattogram division while rests are in other divisions.

The health official dubbed Dhaka, Narayanganj and Chattogram as COVID-19 “hotspots” because the maximum numbers of cases were detected in the three cities.

As of June 14, Dhaka city has been considered as the worst-affected with 23,779 COVID cases, according to Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR).

Among the COVID-19-prone districts, Chattogram district including city areas, and Narayanganj including city areas, are the most hardest- hit ones with 3680 and 2,970 cases respectively, according to the IEDCR data.

It was followed by Dhaka district, excluding city areas, with 2022 cases, Cumilla district with city areas 1685 cases, Munshiganj district with 1498 cases, Cox’s Bazar district with 1340 cases, Gazipur district including city areas with 1269 cases, Noakhali district with 1027 cases, Mymensingh district including city areas with 855 cases, Faridpur district with 695 cases, Sylhet district including city areas with 676 cases and Rangpur district including city areas with 639 cases.

She said a total of 5,33,717 samples have so far been tested since the detection of the first COVID-19 cases in the country.

According to the DGHS, a total of 3, 26,779 people were kept at both home and institutional quarantine and 2,64,263 people were released from quarantine, while the number of people who are now in quarantine is 62,546.

It said a total of 629 institutions have been prepared across the country for keeping over 31,991 people in quarantine, adding nearly 10,302 people have now been kept in isolation.

The government has collected 24, 85,142 PPE so far, of which over 23,17,507 were distributed and 1, 67,437 are in stock, the DGHS said.

It said till today, nearly 1,14,70,700 people received healthcare services from hotline mobile numbers and health web portals as the government formed a group of medical professionals to provide emergency health services.

To receive information and treatment facilities on COVID-19, the contact hotline and mobile numbers are 16263; 333; 10655 and 01944333222.

As of June 16, 2020, 10:23 GMT, 439,577 have died so far from the COVID-19 outbreak and there are 8,137,125 currently confirmed cases in 212 countries and territories, according to Worldometer, a reference website that provides counters and real-time statistics for diverse topics.

China was the world’s first country which on January 11 reported the first death from the novel coronavirus in Wuhan, the capital of Central China’s Hubei province.