The number of new cases of coronavirus fell slightly on Saturday, Health Minister Zahid Maleque announced. He said they found 58 new cases in the last 24 hours testing 954 people. The number of new cases on the previous day was 94 and the day before 112. But three more patients died and only three recovered in the last 24 hours, he said in the 2.30pm health bulletin.
With that, the number of total coronavirus cases stood at 482 in Bangladesh – 30 died and 36 recovered. He asked all to stay at home and maintain health hygiene instructions. “A stitch in time saves nine,” he warned, adding that Dhaka’s Mirpur, Basabo and Narayangaj were the places from where they received the most cases.
The government extended the nationwide lockdown to Apr 25. To tighten the movement, the government in its latest order on Saturday ordered people not to come out of homes from 6pm to 6am till the further notice. The government also ordered all shops, except drugstores, to shut their businesses by 6pm every day.
Director General for Health Services Prof Abul Kalam Azad said they have intensified testing measures to know the actual situation. “We have involved community clinics also so that we can know the real situation even at the village level. We need to know the situation of infection even in the most remote areas of the country. We are trying to do that,” he said at the virtual briefing.
He also introduced a new organisation of physicians – Doctors for Covid-19 solutions – who will help patients to get services round the clock, amid complaints that hospitals are denying the access to patients. Giving details about the new cases, Director of Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) Prof Meerjady Sabrina Flora said 48 of them are male and the rest are female.
Fourteen of them are from Dhaka and eight from Narayanganj. Seventeen of the new patients are aged 31-40 years and 15 others are 41-50 years old. Of the deceased, one was from Dhaka and two from outside the capital. Their ages were 38, 55 and 54 years. Two of them were male and one was female.
Prof Flora said of the total cases, 22 percent are aged between 31-40 years, 19 percent 21-30 years and 19 percent 41-50 years. She said 70 percent of the overall patients in Bangladesh are male and 30 percent female. And 52 percent of them are from the Dhaka City and 35 percent from other districts in Dhaka division and the rest are scattered to other districts, she said.
