Bangladesh on Tuesday recorded the highest deaths from Covid19 in a day amid World Health Organisation’s warning that the pandemic is ‘not even close to being over’.
The health ministry also formed another 15-member Covid-19 management committee to oversee the management.
Additional director general for health Prof Nasima Sultana in the daily briefing said 64 patients died and 3,682 new cases of coronavirus infection were recorded in the last 24 hours till 8am.
With that, the death toll from the pandemic rose to 1,847 and the number of total infections stood at 145,483 in Bangladesh.
During the period, hospitals had released 1,844 patients, increasing the tally of recoveries to 59,624.
Bangladesh first confirmed the cases on March 8 and the first death on March 18. The WHO declared the disease pandemic on March 11.
The global death toll passed half a million and cases 10 million with new infections rising in Latin America and the United States.
All countries want this to be over since the hard lockdown measures are crippling economies.
World Health Organisation chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, however, said in Geneva that “the hard reality is this is not even close to being over.”
“Although many countries have made some progress, globally the pandemic is actually speeding up,” he said.
The virus emerged at least six months ago in China, where the WHO will send a team next week in the search for its origin, Tedros said.
In Bangladesh, authorities are implementing zonal lockdowns based on the density of the virus affected people after lifting general holidays across the country.
In the last 24 hours, the health department said 18,426 samples have been tested across Bangladesh.
So far 766,460 samples have been tested which indicates the infection rate 18.98 percent.
Around 40.98 percent patients – both symptomatic and asymptomatic – have recovered so far, while 1.27 percent have died in Bangladesh.
Of the latest deceased, 52 were men and 12 women. Fifty-one patients died in different hospitals and 13 at their respective homes.
Of them, 31 were from Dhaka, 13 from Chattogram, seven each from Rajshahi and Khulna, two each from Sylhet, Barishal and Mymensingh divisions.
Currently, 64,667 people are quarantined across Bangladesh – including 2,542 newly-quarantined individuals. A total of 299,199 people have completed their quarantine course.
The authorities placed 449 new individuals suspected of having Covid-19 into isolation, bringing the total to 15,145 after 11,440 left.
Meanwhile, the Health Services Division (HSD) formed a 15-member Covid-19 management committee to help prevent spread of the virus and to ensure proper health care for patients.
Additional Secretary (Public Health Wing) Kazi Zebunnessa Begum is the convener while Joint Secretary (Pubic Health) Begum Nilufer Nazneen is the member secretary of the committee.
The committee will work to implement the directives of the Prime Minister to control Covid-19 infections in the country, according to the notice. They will mostly take steps to expand the treatment services at private facilities.