Staff Reporter :
The health authorities have reported the biggest spike in daily new cases of novel coronavirus since the first case was reported on March 8 of this year.
Figures furnished by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare along with concerned health departments point to the detection of as many as 503 fresh cases of Covid-19 across the country on Friday.
With the latest figure, the number of total confirmed cases jumped to 4,689.
Prof Dr Nasima Sultana, additional director general at Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), revealed the latest figures in a daily online bulletin on coronavirus situation in Dhaka Friday afternoon.
“503 more people test positive, 4 die in last 24 hours, raising the death toll to 131,” she said, adding that the health authorities in last 24 hours tested 3,686 samples, taking the total number of tests conducted so far to 39,776.
The tests conducted in past 24 hours are 7.9% higher compared to those in the previous 24 hours ending on Thursday morning.
The DGHS official said all four deceased, aged between 51 and 60, were men and the deaths occurred in Dhaka.
On April 20, the death toll from coronavirus infection crossed the 100 mark in Bangladesh.
On April 17, the country recorded the highest deaths with 15 more fatalities from the pandemic announced by the World Health Organization (WHO), since the country declared its first death on March 18.
In the briefing, Nasima said four more people have recovered from the disease, raising the total number of recoveries to 112.
As many as 995 people were put on isolation and 622 of them were released so far, she said.
On the other hand, a total of 171,846 suspects were put in both home and institutional quarantine while 89,112 of them were released.
The DGHS official said the government has prepared 601 institutions in all upazilas across Bangladesh for institutional quarantine where 30,635 people can avail services.
The government so far managed 1,516,190 personal protective equipment (PPE) and of those, 1,242,008 were distributed, she said. A total of 3,158,092 service seekers were provided with various services via four hotlines introduced by the government to reply to Covid-19 queries.
Nasima said 15,363 doctors have taken training on Covid-19 from the online platform, Muktopath, and they are providing telemedicine services via hotlines.
Also, 3,999 physicians are providing voluntary treatment in Bangladesh, she added. Nasima, however, urged the Muslims to pray at home and avoid any social event during Ramadan. She also warned all of facing dire consequence if they fail to follow the hygiene regulations.
On March 8, the health authorities in Bangladesh reported the first case of Covid-19, a severe acute respiratory illness caused by a new strain of coronavirus named Sars-CoV-2 that broke out in China’s Wuhan in December last year and quickly spread throughout the world, becoming a pandemic in less than three months. The fast spreading coronavirus has claimed 191,420 lives and infected 2,736,034 people across the world till 3:25pm on Friday, according to worldometer.
As many as 751,772 people have recovered from Covid-19 which has spread to 210 countries and territories across the planet.
