Bangladesh reports highest COVID-19 deaths, fresh positive cases

ZOOMBANGLA DESK: Bangladesh today reported 19 more deaths from the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), the highest over a 24-hour period, raising the fatalities from the pandemic to 269.

The caseload also soared to 17,822 after 1,162 people, in the steepest single-day jump, tested positive for COVID-19 during the same period, a top health official said.

“Nineteen more COVID-19 patients died in the last 24 hours, increasing the death toll from the pandemic to 269,” DGHS Additional Director General (administration) Prof Nasima Sultana told a virtual media briefing at the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) in the city.

Nasima said the recovery count rose to 3,361 in the last 24 hours after 214 patients were discharged from hospitals.

The health official informed that a total of 7,900 samples, the highest in a single day, were tested at 41 authorised laboratories across the country during the period.

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

Globally, over 4.26 million people have been infected by the novel coronavirus and 291,981 have died, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

Infections have been reported in more than 210 countries and territories since the first cases were identified in China in December 2019.