Bangladesh reports 28 more COVID-19 deaths, 1764 fresh cases

ZOOMBANGLA DESK: Bangladesh today reported 28 more fatalities from the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in a daily count, raising the death toll from the pandemic to 610, BSS reports.

“The tally of infections has also surged to 44,608 as 1764 new COVID-19 cases were detected in the last 24 hours,” DGHS Additional Director General Prof Nasima Sultana told a virtual media briefing at the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) in the city.

She said the recovery count rose to 9375 after another 360 patients were released from hospitals in the same period.

The health official also informed that a total of 9987 samples were tested at 50 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.

Nasima 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.

She said among the 28 deaths, four in their 30s, four in their 40s, nine in their 50s, six in their 60s, three in their 70s and two in their 80s.

Among the COVID-19 victims, ten are in Dhaka city and rests are outside the capital city, the health official said.

According to the division-wise data, she said, 18 deaths took place in Dhaka division, seven in Chattogram division, two in Rangpur and one in Sylhet division.

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

As of May 29, Dhaka city has been considered as the worst-affected with 15,553 COVID cases, according to Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR).

Among the COVID-19-prone districts, Chattogram is the most hardest- hit one with 2138 cases, according to the IEDCR data.

It was followed by Narayanganj 1944 cases, Cumilla with 753, Munshiganj with 658, Dhaka with 650, Gazipur with 629 positive cases, Cox’s Bazar with 508, Noakhali with 478 cases, Mymensingh with 424 cases and Rangpur with 409 cases.

The health official said a total of 2, 97,054 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 2, 88, 225 people were kept at both home and institutional quarantine and 2,21,949 people were released from quarantine, while the number of people who are now in quarantine is 60,276.

It said a total of 629 institutions have been prepared across the country for keeping over 31,991 people in quarantine, adding nearly 5529 people have now been kept in isolation.

The DGHS said the government has so far collected 24,70,002 PPE, of which over 21, 04,504 were distributed and 3,65, 468 are in stock.

It said till today, nearly 85,40,159 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 May 30, 2020, 10:05 GMT, 367,228 people have died so far from the COVID-19 outbreak and there are 6,048,870 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.