Bangladesh on Friday confirmed 40 more deaths and 3,868 new cases of coronavirus by testing 18,498 samples in the last 24 hours.
During the period till 8am, 1,638 patients were released from hospitals.
With that, the death toll from the pandemic virus rose to 1,661, total infections surged to 130,474 and recovered 53,133. So far, Bangladesh tested 696,941 samples for coronavirus.
Additional Director General for Health Prof Nasima Sultana updating the nation said of the dead patients 31 were men and nine women. Of them, 31 died at hospitals while nine others at homes.
Their age-based analysis shows one was aged below 10 years, three were aged between 31 and 40 years, six between 41 and 50, 12 between 51 and 60, 14 between 61 and 70, three between 71 and 80, and one more patient was aged between 81 and 90 years.
Fourteen patients died in Dhaka division, 12 in Chattogram division, four in Khulna division, four in Barishal division, three in Sylhet division, and three more patients died in Rangpur division.
The detection rate of new patients out of the tested samples on Friday has been recorded at 20.91 percent.
Against the total number of detected cases, the recovery rate is 40.72 percent and the mortality rate is 1.27 percent in Bangladesh.
Currently, 64,121 people are quarantined across Bangladesh – including 2,922 newly-quarantined individuals.
A total of 288,748 people have completed their quarantine course.
The authorities placed 861 new individuals suspected of having Covid-19 into isolation, bringing the total to 13,800 after 9,567 left.
Prof Nasima assured all that there are sufficient beds ready for Covid-19 patients in Bangladesh.
She ruled out reports of shortage of beds and ICUs for the COVID-19 patients, and said there are 5709 beds and 274 ICUs in 16 COVID-19 dedicated hospitals in Dhaka city.
At present, a total of 2,375 coronavirus patients have been admitted to these hospitals, while 97 patients remain at the ICUs, she added.
There are 13,586 beds and 473 ICUs in the hospitals of eight divisions, she said, adding that now 4,691 patients are undergoing treatment at these hospitals and 183 were admitted to the ICUs.
“So, there is no scarcity of ICUs and beds in the hospital for COVID-19 patients,” she reassured.
She also urged all to abide by health rules to protect themselves from the infection of the deadly virus.
People have been asked to maintain three things — wearing a mask, physical distancing and washing hands by soap — to contain the spread of the virus.
Referring to the latest health directives of the WHO, Prof Nasima said the people must wear masks to protect themselves from infections.
She said scientifically cloth-made masks are equally effective to prevent the virus. “We can reuse cloth-made masks after washing by detergents or soaps”.
Bangladesh first confirmed coronavirus cases on March 8 and first death on March 18. The WHO declared the disease pandemic on March 11.
