The government on Tuesday registered 2,996 new cases of Covid-19 and 33 deaths in the last 24 hours.
During the period till 8am, 1,535 patients were declared free of the virus while 14,820 samples were tested in 86 government authorised labs across the country.
With that, Additional Director General for Health Prof Nasima Sultana at the daily bulletin said the number of total cases stood at 263,503, deaths 3,471 and recoveries rose to 151,972.
She, however, said from Wednesday there would be no virtual bulletin for the updates of Covid-19; instead the health department would issue a statement to the media everyday.
Bangladesh first recorded the Covid-19 cases on March 8 and the first death on March 18. The WHO declared the virus pandemic on March 11.
Of the latest victims, 28 were men and five women.
Fifteen of them are from Dhaka, five each from Rajshahi and Chittagong, four from Rangpur, three from Khulna, and one from Mymensingh division.
Thirty of them have died in different hospitals and three at their respective residences.
The recovery rate is 57.67 percent in Bangladesh while the death rate is 1.32 percent.
So far, Bangladesh has tested 1,287,988 samples from January to find the Covid-19 cases.
The government’s disease monitoring agency, Institute of Epidemiology Disease Control and Research (IEDCR), organised the first briefing on the coronavirus issue in the first week of February this year.
IEDCR Director Prof Meerjady Sabrina Flora herself used to give the briefings to journalists when there was no case in Bangladesh, but the WHO declared the virus a global public health emergency following the outbreak in China in December.
After the detection of cases in Bangladesh, the health directorate joined the IEDCR in the briefings.
At the end of March, instead of Prof Flora, Director of Management Information System of DGHS Dr Md Habibur Rahman started conducting the regular briefings.
The DGHS later decided to conduct an online briefing considering the health risks.At that time, journalists could join the briefing using zoom and took part in the Q&A session.
Later, the department started presenting the briefing in the form of a bulletin from the second week of April, omitting the journalists' engagement.
Prof Nasima Sultana regularly presented the updates to the nation.
On Tuesday, she said, there would be no such bulletin from Wednesday. She, however, did not mention any reason.
People have been asked to contact hotline and mobile numbers - 16263; 333; 10655 and 01944333222 – to receive information and treatment facilities on Covid-19.