Bangladesh virus cases near 50,000, records 22 more deaths

ZOOMBANGLA DESK: The number of coronavirus cases (COVID-19) in Bangladesh hit nearly 50,000 today after 2,381 people tested positive in the past 24 hours, BSS reports.

“The fatalities from the pandemic have also surged to 672 as 22 more patients died during the period,” 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 caseload spiralled to 49,534 as 2,381 new COVID-19 cases were detected in the last 24 hours.

The health official said the recovery count rose to 10,597 after another 816 patients were released from hospitals in the same period.

She also informed that a total of 11439 samples were tested at 52 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 22 deaths, one is in his 20s, eight in their 40s, four in their 50s, seven in their 60s and two in their 80s.

According to the division-wise data, 11 deaths took place in Dhaka division, eight in Chattogram division, Two in Sylhet division and one in Barishal division.

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

As of May 30, Dhaka city has been considered as the worst-affected with 16,260 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 2,288 cases, according to the IEDCR data.

It was followed by Narayanganj 2057 cases, Cumilla with 771, Munshiganj with 698, Dhaka with 662, Cox’s Bazar with 636, Gazipur with 635 Noakhali with 574 cases, Mymensingh with 489 cases and Rangpur with 415 cases.

She said a total of 3, 20, 369 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, 87, 879 people were kept at both home and institutional quarantine and 2, 28,743 people were released from quarantine, while the number of people who are now in quarantine is 59,166.

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 collected 24, 89,162 PPE so far, of which over 21, 40,293 were distributed and 3,48, 869 are in stock.

Till today, it said, nearly 88,97,081 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 1, 2020, 10:20 GMT, 374,322 people have died so far from the COVID-19 outbreak and there are 6,286,366 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.