Coronavirus cases crossed 100,000-mark in Bangladesh on the 103th day on Thursday with half of them identified in the last 16 days only.
With that, Bangladesh is now ranked 18th in the world in terms of the highest number of coronavirus cases with United States at the top of the list prepared by the Worldometers.
The health department in the daily bulletin on Thursday said 3803 more people tested positive overnight, 38 died and 1,975 recovered during the period of 24 hours till 8am.
With that, the number of cases rose to 102,292, deaths 1343 and recoveries 40,164.
Additional Director General for Health Prof Nasima Sultana said they had tested 16,259 samples during the period across the country.
Bangladesh first reported the outbreak on March 8 in three patients. The first death was recorded on March 18. The WHO declared the disease pandemic on March 11.
So far, 39.26 percent patients have recovered, while 1.31 percent died in Bangladesh.
It took 58 days to detect the first 10,000 cases in Bangladesh from March 8 to May 4.
On June 2, the number crossed 50,000.
However, the number of patients continued to rise along with the increasing rate of testing which indicates that there are cases in the community unreported.
The government after enforcing general holidays since March 26 reopened on May 31. But now it is implementing zonal lockdown case by case by dividing areas into red, yellow and green based on the density of the patients.
But the rate of infection in the community is still not clear due to lack of survey or random testing among the general population.
Among the latest deaths, 31 were men and seven women, Prof Nasima said.
Of them 14 were from Dhaka, 18 from Chattogram, two from Khulna and one each from Rajshahi, Rangpur, Barishal and Mymensingh.
Currently, 62,706 people are quarantined across Bangladesh – including 2,821 newly-quarantined individuals.
A total of 269,935 people have completed their quarantine course.
The health department placed 674 new individuals suspected of having Covid-19 into isolation, bringing the total to 11,026 after 6,845 left.
People have been asked to wear masks in public places, maintain 3 feet physical distancing and wash hands with soap.
The health department asked people to contact hotline and mobile numbers - 16263; 333; 10655 and 01944333222 – to receive information and treatment facilities on COVID-19.
