Staff Reporter :
Health authorities have confirmed that another 34 Covid-19 patients died in the last 24 hours, taking the death toll from the deadly disease to 1,695 in Bangladesh.
Between Friday and Saturday mornings, 3,504 more people also tested positive for Covid-19, raising the total number of confirmed cases in the countries to 1,33,978.
An Additional Director General (Administration) of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), Prof Nasima Sultana, revealed the latest data during a daily online briefing from Dhaka on Saturday afternoon.
She also said that 1,185 people recovered from the disease in the last 24 hours, taking the number of recovered patients to 54,318 so far since the first Covid-19 cases were recorded on March 8.
“There are enough general and ICU beds available in all hospitals dedicated for Covid-19 treatment,” its Additional Director General Nasima Sultana said.
There are 16 hospitals dedicated for coronavirus patients in the capital and another in Dhaka district. The dedicated hospitals in Dhaka city have 4,293 general beds and 79 intensive care unit (ICU) beds. Other dedicated hospitals across the country have 12,073 general and 275 ICU beds in total.
Across the country 4,225 general beds are occupied and 112 ICU beds are occupied.
“Beds are empty in all dedicated hospitals. Anyone can call the DGHS control room for information or to get support for admission in any of the hospitals,” said Prof Nasima.
She said as many as 15,059 samples were collected in the last 24 hours and 15,157 samples including previous collections were tested in 58 authorized labs across the country in the same time period, and 3,504 of them or 23.12% tested Covid-19 positive, she said.
In all, 712,098 tests have been conducted so far — of which 18.81% tested positive, she added.
Recovery rate 40.54%
In the briefing, the DGHS officials also said that 1,185 more Covid-19 patients recovered from the infection in the last 24 hours.
So far, 54,318 people – 40.54% of all infected – have made full recovery from the deadly viral infection.
Across the country, 726 more people were taken to isolation in the last 24 hours, while 259 were released. As many as 14,267 remain in isolation at present. Till now 24,093 patients have been sent in isolation, and 9,026 people have been released.
During the same period, another 2,312 people were put in quarantine and 2,520 were released. At present, 63,913 people are quarantined across the country.
“The government now has 153,181 personal protective equipment (PPE) in reserve. And till now we distributed 2375,064 PPEs to frontline workers,” she added.
On March 8, health authorities in Bangladesh reported the first case of Covid-19, a severe acute respiratory illness caused by the new strain of coronavirus, Sars-CoV-2.
The virus broke out in China’s Wuhan in December 2019 and quickly spread throughout the world, becoming a pandemic in less than three months.
The fast-spreading coronavirus, which was first reported in China’s Wuhan, has claimed more than 497,255 lives and infected more than 9,919,525 people globally, according to Worldometer.
As many as 5,372,242 people have recovered from Covid-19, which has spread to 213 countries and territories across the planet.
Fatality rate 1.27%
Of the 34 who died on Friday — 32 men and two women – 13 were from Dhaka division, 10 from Chittagong, one in Khulna, and four each from Rajshahi and Sylhet, and two in Rangpur.
Prof Nasima said one of the deceased was between 21 and 30 years of age; one between 31 and 40; six between 41 and 50; six between 51 and 60; 13 between 61 and 70; seven between 71 and 80; and one over 80.
Of the victims, 30 died in different hospitals and four at home, she added.
The death toll accounts for 1.27% of all infected so far.
Deaths from the coronavirus infection crossed the 1,500 mark in Bangladesh on June 22 and the country recorded its first fatality on March 18.
On June 18, Covid-19 cases in Bangladesh crossed the 100,000 mark.
On June 17, Bangladesh crossed the 4,000 mark, recording 4,008 new cases, the highest in a 24-hour span.
The country also recorded 53 deaths from the deadly Covid-19 infection on June 16, the highest number of deaths recorded in the country in a single day.
