Bangladesh reports 37 more virus deaths, highest cases & tests

ZOOMBANGLA DESK: Bangladesh today reported 37 more fatalities from the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in a daily count, raising the death toll from the pandemic to 1012, BSS reports.

“The tally of infections has also spiralled to 74,865 after 3,190 new COVID-19 cases, a single-day record, were detected in the last 24 hours,” 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 15,899 after another 563 patients were released from hospitals in the same period.

Among the total infections, 21.24 percent patients have recovered while 1.35 percent died so far since the first COVID-19 positive cases were reported in the country on March 8, the heath official said.

She also informed that a total of 15,965 samples, the highest in a single day, were tested at 55 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.

Pointing out the trend of buying oxygen cylinders by the people in the current situation, Nasima urged them not to purchase those for using it at home for COVID-19 patients.

“As oxygen therapy is a technical medical service, only experienced physicians and medical technologists know proper use of oxygen support for patients. It is not possible for non-medical persons to determine appropriate measurement of oxygen therapy,” she added.

People should refrain from the dangerous practice of buying oxygen cylinders, the health official said, adding this risky practice creates artificial shortage of oxygen cylinders in the markets.

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), she 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,” Nasima said.

She 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 37 deaths, 33 are male and four female, Nasima said adding, three are in their 30s, five in their 40s, 10 in their 50s, 10 in their 60s, seven in their 70s, one in his 80s and one is between 10 to 20 years.

According to the division-wise data, 25 deaths took place in Dhaka division and seven 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 7, Dhaka city has been considered as the worst-affected with 20,697 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 3114 and 2682 cases respectively, according to the IEDCR data.

It was followed by Dhaka district, excluding city areas, with 1,558 cases, Cumilla with 1206, Gazipur with 1165 cases, Munshiganj with 1130 cases, Cox’s Bazar with 969 cases, Noakhali with 865 cases, Sylhet with 676 cases, Mymensingh with 616 cases and Rangpur with 516 cases.

She said a total of 4, 41, 560 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 3,0,9183 people were kept at both home and institutional quarantine and 2, 51,472 people were released from quarantine, while the number of people who are now in quarantine is 56,711.

It said a total of 629 institutions have been prepared across the country for keeping over 31,991 people in quarantine, adding nearly 8,243 people have now been kept in isolation.

The government has collected 25, 09,142 PPE so far, of which over 22, 72,975 were distributed and 2, 36,167 are in stock, the DGHS said.

It said till today, nearly 1,04,63,782 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 10, 2020, 09:41 GMT, 414,124 have died so far from the COVID-19 outbreak and there are 7,342,359 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.