Bangladesh today (11 July 2020) recorded 30 coronavirus (COVID-19) deaths and 2,686 fresh cases overnight.
The recovery count rose to 88,034 after another 1,628 patients were discharged from the hospitals during the period, a top health official said.
“Thirty COVID-19 patients died in the last 24 hours, increasing the death toll from the pandemic to 2,305,” 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 1,81,129 as 2,686 new cases were confirmed in the last 24 hours.
The health official also informed that a total of 11,193 samples were tested at 77 authorised laboratories across the country during the time.
Among the total infections, 48.60 percent patients have recovered while 1.27 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 6305 beds and 142 ICUs in 16 COVID-19 dedicated hospitals in Dhaka city.
The country has a total of 14,945 beds and 394 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 30 deaths, 25 are male and five female, Nasima said adding, three in their 30s, three in his 40s, eight in their 50s, 12 in their 60s, three in their 70s and one is in his 80s.
According to the division-wise data, 13 deaths took place in Dhaka division and 10 in Chattogram division while rests are in other divisions.
Of the total 2,305 deaths, 1,176 are in Dhaka Division,1,012 in Chattogram division, 117 in Rajshahi division, 115 in Khulna division, 77 in Barishal division, 99 in Sylhet division, 71 in Rangpur division and 55 in Mymensingh division.
As of July 9, among the COVID-19-prone districts, Chattogram district including city areas and Narayanganj including city areas are the most hardest- hit ones with 9,888 and 5,424 cases respectively, according to the IEDCR data.
It was followed by Cumilla district with 4167 cases, Gazipur district including city areas with 3713 cases, Dhaka district, excluding city areas, with 3397 cases, Bogura district with 3307 cases, Sylhet district including city areas with 2809 cases, Cox’s Bazar district with 2,613 cases, Faridpur district with 2044 cases, Khulna district including city areas with 2435 cases, Noakhali district with 2362 cases, Munshiganj district with 2206 cases, Mymensingh district including city areas with 2052 cases, Barishal district including city areas with 1686, Kishorganj district with 1677 cases, Narsingdi district with 1495 cases, Chandpur district with 1187 cases, Brahmanbaria district with 1178 cases, Rajshahi district including city areas with 1085 cases and Sunamganj district with 1062 cases.
She said a total of 9,29,465 samples have so far been tested since the detection of the first COVID-19 cases in the country.