Deaths from the pandemic coronavirus crossed 600-mark in Bangladesh on Saturday when the government confirmed 28 more deaths, highest in a day so far.
The health department also confirmed 1,764 new cases of the infection testing 9,987 samples in 50 labs in the last 24 hours till 8am of Saturday.
With that, the death toll from the virus surged to 610 and the number of cases 44,604.
Additional Director General for Health Prof Nasima Sultana, while giving those updates in the daily bulletin, said the death rate from covid-19 was 1.37 percent, and infection rate was 17.66 percent in Bangladesh.
She said the recovery rate is 21.02 percent so far with the release of 360 more patients in the last 24 hours from hospitals. With that, 9,375 people have been recovered from the disease, according to the government tally.
The government confirmed first three cases on March 8. The World Health Organisation declared the virus pandemic on March 11.
A total of 297,054 samples have been tested so far in Bangladesh which is still lowest in the South Asia region.
Testing is the key to who the person who got the virus for isolating them from others so that it cannot pass further.
The government is reopening everything from Sunday including public transport, despite health technical committee’s recommendation to keep those shut few more days.
Among the new victims, 25 were male and three were female. Two patients died at their houses as most of the people have been asked to stay at home with the disease.
Among the dead, 18 are from Dhaka city, seven from Chattogram division and two from Rangpur and one from Sylhet division.
Of the total deceased, most of them were at the age above 60,
“Two percent were aged below 10, three percent were aged between 21 and 30, seven percent between 31 and 40, nine percent between 41 and 50, 27 percent between 51 and 60 and 42 percent of them are aged above 60,” Prof Nasima said.
Of them, 75 percent were male and 25 percent were female.
Some 2,220 people placed in quarantine in the last 24 hours. A total of 282,225 people have completed their quarantine course, she said at the bulletin.