Bangladesh today recorded 27 novel coronavirus (COVID-19) deaths and 2,851 fresh cases overnight.
The recovery count rose to 145,584 after another 1,760 patients were discharged from the hospitals during the period, a top health official said.
“Twenty-seven more COVID-19 patients died in the last 24 hours, increasing the death toll from the pandemic to 3,333,” Additional Director General of Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) Prof Nasima Sultana told a virtual media briefing at DGHS in the city this afternoon.
She said the tally of infections has surged to 2,52,502 as 2,851 new cases were confirmed in the last 24 hours.
A total of 12,699 samples were tested at 84 authorised labs across the country during the period, the health official said.
Of the total sample test in the past 24 hours, 22.45 percent tested positive, while 20.40 percent cases were detected from the total tests conducted so far, Nasima added.
Among the total infections, 57.66 percent patients have recovered, while 1.32 percent died so far since the first COVID-19 positive cases were reported in the country on March 8, she said.
Referring to the updated information of World Health Organization (WHO), Nasima said till August 3, infection rate of COVID-19 is 1421.5 in every one million people in Bangladesh.
Among the eight divisions, Dhaka is the most hardest-hit division with 3,637 infection rate per one million, while Rangpur division has the lowest infection rate with 347.3 per one million, she added.
The health official dubbed Dhaka, Narayanganj and Chattogram as COVID-19 “hotspots” because the maximum number of cases were detected in the three cities.
Among the 27 deaths, 24 are male and three female, she said, adding four are in their 40s, six in their 50s, 12 in their 60s, four in their 70s and one in his 80s.
According to the division-wise data, 13 deaths took place in Dhaka division, five in Khulna division and rests are in other divisions.
Among the total 3,333 deaths, Nasima said, 1,597 deaths occurred in Dhaka division, 794 in Chattogram division, 205 in Rajshahi division, 247 in Khulna division, 131 in Barishal division, 156 in Sylhet division, 132 in Rangpur division and 71 in Mymensingh division.
She said a total of 12,37,823 samples have so far been tested since the detection of the first COVID-19 cases in the country.
The DGHS said in order to make treatment facilities easily available for COVID-19 patients, the government has introduced telemedicine services comprising 70 physicians and 20 health workers for round the clock in the country.
A total of 1,74,015 people have so far received healthcare services from telemedicine, it said.
The DGHS said 1,33,96,202 people received healthcare services from hotline mobile numbers and health web portals as the government formed a group of medical professionals to provide emergency health services.
To receive information and treatment facilities on COVID-19, the contact hotline and mobile numbers are 16263; 333; 10655 and 01944333222.
As of Aug 7, 2020, 09.57 GMT, 718,076 have died so far from the COVID-19 outbreak and there are 19,282,787 currently confirmed cases in 212 countries and territories, according to Worldometer, a reference website that provides counters and real-time statistics for diverse topics.
China was the world’s first country which on January 11 reported the first death from the novel coronavirus in Wuhan, the capital of Central China’s Hubei province.