Bangladesh on Friday recorded yet another deadliest day of COVID-19 as 15 people died of the virus overnight.
Some 266 new patients were identified during the 24 hours period between 8am of Thursday to 8am of Friday. Nine more patients made recovery during the period.
Health Minister Zahid Maleque giving the updates at the 2.30pm daily bulletin said they had tested 2,190 samples across Bangladesh during the time.
With the update, the total number of coronavirus patients stood at 1,838 in Bangladesh with 75 deaths and 58 recoveries.
“Nearly 500 people have received treatment from hospitals, which is less than 30 percent of the total patients. Only 1.8 percent people have been taken to ICUs,” the health minister said, adding that they have all the preparations to face the crisis.
“Every hospital has oxygen support which is necessary for critical patients. However, 80 percent patients don’t need any treatment”.
The minister again reiterated that the country has no shortage of PPEs. “We’re providing nearly 100,000 PPEs every day,” he said.
The global death toll from coronavirus jumped to 145,521 until Friday morning. Confirmed COVID-19 cases have reached 2,182,197, according to Worldometer.
Of those infected, 1,489,381 are currently being treated and 56,558 of them are in serious or critical condition. So far, 547,295 patients have recovered.
The World Health Organisation declared the coronavirus crisis a pandemic on March 11. Bangladesh announced the detection of first cases on March 8.
But analyzing the tally, it is found that coronavirus cases have increased in Bangladesh sharply since April 12.
Of the total 1,838 cases, 1356 were detected in the past six days - 139 cases on April 12, 182 on April 13, 209 on April 14, 219 on April 15, 341 on April 16 and 266 on April 17.
So far the government has tested a total of 19,077 samples.
IEDCR Director Prof Meerjady Sabrina Flora said most of the patients were within the 21 year to 30 years age group.
“If we look at the age group of the most affected people, you’ll find that 21 percent of total infected people are aged between 21 to 30 years,” she said, followed by 19 percent between 41 to 50 years and 15 percent between 41 to 50 years.
Of the total, 68 percent are male and 32 percent female. Most of the infected people are from Dhaka.
“46 percent are from Dhaka and 20 percent from Narayanganj. Gazipur, Chattogram, and Munshiganj are also seeing the rising number of patients,” she said, analyzing the patients’ data.
The highest cases in Dhaka are reported from Mirpur area.
“Eleven percent of the total patients in Dhaka are from Mirpur, especially Tollarbag area, has seen the highest number of infections. Mohammadpur, Wari and Jatrabari areas have 4 percent patients whereas Uttara and Dhanmondi areas have 3 percent patients,” she said.
Additional Director General of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) Dr Nasima Sultana added that 4,499 people were sent to home quarantine in the past 24 hours.
She also told the briefing that by now authorities collected over 15 lakh PPE, and of them, they distributed nearly 11 lakh PPE at different hospitals countrywide, while rest PPE are in stock.
She said over one lakh people were kept at both home and institutional quarantine and nearly 67,000 people were released from quarantine, while the number of people who currently remain in quarantine is about 37,000.
The additional director general said a total of 488 institutions have been prepared across Bangladesh for keeping over 26,000 people in quarantine.
She said they are giving training to doctors, medical technologists and health workers online. Screening at all ports are ongoing.
She said the government by now prepared 7,693 isolation beds at different hospitals in Bangladesh to be run under a 23-point health guideline prescribing isolation and quarantine arrangements, PPE usage and hygienic environment.
She asked people to contact hotline and mobile numbers - 16263; 333; 10655 and 01944333222 – to receive information and treatment facilities on COVID-19. Till Friday, she said, over 26 lakh people received healthcare services from professionals using the hotline mobile numbers and health web portals.
