Staff Reporter :
Fifteen people have died with coronavirus infections in the last 24 hours while the total number of infected has crossed the grim milestone of 20,000, the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) said on Friday.
The death toll now stands at 298, said Prof Dr Nasima Sultana, additional director general (administration) of DGHS, during a briefing.
Besides, 1,202 people have tested positive for Covid-19 in the last 24 hours, a record daily spike. With this, the total number of infected has reached 20,065.
A total of 8,582 samples were tested, the highest so far, in 41 labs across the country since yesterday, Dr Nasima said.
Meanwhile 279 Covid-19 patients recovered since yesterday. The total number of recovered patients now stands at 3,882, the DGHS official added.
A total of 259 people were put under isolation in the last 24 hours, she added.
Among the deceased, eight were female and seven male, Dr Nasima said adding that two of them were between 81-90 years old, three between 61-70, eight within 51-60, one between 31-40 and another within 21-30 years old.
In the last 24 hours, 81 people have been released from isolation and so far 1,479 people have been released in total.
The government prepared 8,934 isolation beds so far, 329 ICU beds and 102 dialysis units for the patients and efforts are underway to increase the number of ICU beds and dialysis units.
In the last 24 hours, 2,797 people have been put on home and institutional quarantine with a total of 2,33,470 people put on quarantine.
A total of 2006 people have been exempted from quarantine in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of the released to 186,665 people.
At present, there are 46,805 people quarantined in their home or an institution.
617 institutions have been prepared for institutional quarantine at different district and upazilas of the country where the government can accommodate 31,165 people.
On May 8, deaths from coronavirus infection crossed the 200-mark in Bangladesh, just three weeks after the country witnessed the 100-mark in fatalities and two months after the first Covid-19 case was reported in Bangladesh.
Bangladesh recorded its first fatality on March 18 and crossed its 100-mark on April 20.
Infection percentages fall below 80% in Dhaka
The infection rate has reduced to 79.55% in Dhaka division including 58.11% in Dhaka city. Among other districts, Narayanganj holds the highest number of cases.
Meanwhile, the infection rate stands at 8.47% in Chittagong division, 3.50% in Mymenshigh division, 2.53% in Rangpur, 1.55% in Sylhet, 1.39% in Rajshahi and 1.10% in Barisal.
