Bangladesh today recorded 51 novel coronavirus (COVID-19) deaths and 3,034 fresh cases overnight.

The recovery count rose to 1, 08,725 after another 1,762 patients were discharged from the hospitals during the period, a top health official said.

“Fifty-one more COVID-19 patients died in the last 24 hours, increasing the death toll from the pandemic to 2,547,” Additional Director General of Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) Prof Nasima Sultana told a virtual media briefing at DGHS in the city this afternoon.

She said the tally of infections has surged to 1, 99,357 as 3,024 new cases were confirmed in the last 24 hours.

The health official also informed that a total of 13,860 samples were tested at 80 authorized laboratories across the country during the time.

Among the total infections, 54.54 percent patients have recovered, while 1.28 percent died so far since the first COVID-19 positive cases were reported in the country on March 8, she said.

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

Ruling out the shortage of beds and ICUs for the COVID-19 patients, Nasima said there are 6125 beds and 142 ICUs in 16 COVID-19 dedicated hospitals in Dhaka city.

The country has a total of 14,715 beds and 376 ICUs for the COVID-19 patients, the health official said, adding there is no scarcity of ICUs and beds in the hospital for COVID-19 patients.

Nasima urged the people to abide by health rules to protect themselves from the infection of the deadly virus.

“We’ve to be aware more about codes … 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), the health official 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.

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

Among the 51 deaths, 40 are male and 11 female, Nasima said adding, one is in his 20s, three in their 30s, seven in their 40s, 15 in their 50s, 12 in their 60s, 11 in their 70s and two in their 80s.

 

According to the division-wise data, 13 deaths took place in Dhaka division, 16 in Chattogram division, six each in Khulna and Barishal divisions, while the rests are in other divisions.

Of the total 2,547 deaths, 1,255 are in Dhaka Division, 655 in Chattogram division, 131 in Rajshahi division, 150 in Khulna division, 97 in Barishal division, 116 in Sylhet division, 87 in Rangpur division and 56 in Mymensingh division.

As of July 16, among the COVID-19-prone districts, Dhaka district including city areas, Chattogram district including city areas and Narayanganj district including city areas are the most hardest- hit ones with, 38,324, 11,597 and 5,675 cases respectively, according to the IEDCR data.

It was followed by Cumilla district with 4167 cases, Gazipur district including city areas with 3890 cases, Bogura district with 3763 cases, Khulna district including city areas with 3300 cases, Sylhet district including city areas with 3300 cases, Cox’s Bazar district with 2,971 cases, Noakhali district with 2638 cases, Munshiganj district with 2503 cases, Faridpur district with 2,444 cases, Mymensingh district including city areas with 2052 cases, Kishorganj district with 1767 cases, Barishal district including city areas with 1686, Narsingdi district with 1664 cases, Brahmanbaria district with 1509, Chandpur district with 1,366 and Sunamganj district with 1170 cases.

She said a total of 10,99,357 samples have so far been tested since the detection of the first COVID-19 cases in the country.

A total of 4, 05,530 people were kept at both home and institutional quarantine and 3, 45,304 people were released from quarantine, while the number of people who are now in quarantine is 60,226.

It said a total of 632 institutions have been prepared across the country for keeping over 31,991 people in quarantine, adding nearly 18,250 people have now been kept in isolation.

It said 1,67,11,195 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 July 17, 2020, 10.27 GMT, 593,438 have died so far from the COVID-19 outbreak and there are 13,977,403 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.