Bangladesh today reported 7 more deaths from the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) and 414 fresh positive cases overnight.
“Seven more COVID-19 patients died in the last 24 hours, raising the death toll from the pandemic to 127,” Health and Family Welfare Minister Zahid Maleque told a virtual media briefing at the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) in the city.
The minister said the total number of the COVID-19 cases in the country has climbed to 4186 as 414 more people tested positive for the lethal virus during the time. DGHS Additional Director General (administration) Prof Nasima Sultana also addressed the briefing.
Bangladesh confirmed the first coronavirus death in the country on March 18, ten days after detection of its first COVID-19 positive cases. Maleque said Bangladesh is witnessing sharp rise of coronavirus cases since March 24 as 4180 people tested positive for the virus during the one month period, while the number was only 6 from March 8 to March 23.
He said the total number of recovered patients has now stood at 108 as 16 patients were cured from the disease over the past 24 hours.
The minister said over 300 Bangladeshi expatriates have so far died of coronavirus in different countries. “I want to cleary say that Bangladeshi returnees from Singapore and India must remain at institutional quarantines,” he added.
As coronavirus outbreak is on the rising trend in the country and some healthcare providers have been infected by the virus, the government has taken a decision to recruit 2000 doctors and 4000 nurses to deal with pandemic, Maleque added.
Pointing out that a section of dishonest businessmen is marketing sub-standard protective equipment including PPE and masks, the health minister asked the drug administration to take stern action against the persons involved with the crime.
Nasima said a total of 32,770 samples have so far been tested since the detection of first COVID-19 cases in the country, adding: “We tested the highest number of 3416 samples in the past 24 hours, 320 more than the previous day.”
The health official informed that at present, there are 21 labs in the country for testing samples of COVID-19.
Among the seven fatalities, four are in their 60s, two in their 50s and one in their 40s, she said, adding five of them are male and two female. Nasima said all the seven victims are in Dhaka.
The health official said COVID-19 cases were found in 58 districts meaning that almost all regions of the country are now risky for the fatal disease.
Analyzing area-based transmission of the fatal disease, she said coronavirus positive cases have sharply increased in Gazipur, Mymensingh, Munshiganj, Chattogram, Narsingdi and Keraniganj.
Nasima dubbed Dhaka and Narayanganj COVID-19 as “hotspots” as the maximum number of cases were detected in the two cities.
“Gazipur has been identified as a new hotspot for coronavirus as a large number of positive were found there,” she said.
The health official said till now, Dhaka city is still considered as the worst-affected with 45.51 percent of COVID cases, while Dhaka division has remained top position with 85.26 percent infected cases out of total coronavirus patients.
In Dhaka city, ten areas — Rajarbagh, Mohammadpur, Lalbag, Jatrabari, Bangsal, Chakbazar, Mirpur, Uttara, Tejgaon and Mahakhali —
have been identified the worst hit as the maximum number cases were found in those areas, she added.
According to the age-group, 10 percent COVID-19 cases are in their 60s, 15 percent in their 50s, 18 percent in their 40s, 22 percent in their 30s, 24 percent in their 20s while eight percent is above ten years old and 3 percent below 10 years old, Nasima added.
In order to stem the community transmissions of COVID-19, the health official urged the law enforcement agencies and organizations concerned to take strict measures to make the nationwide shutdown more effective.
“The most effective ways to protect ourselves from the super contagious virus are frequently clean your hands with soap, cover your cough with the bend of elbow or tissue and maintain a distance of at least 1 meter (3 feet) from people who are coughing or sneezing,” Nasima added.
The health official said people must stay at home to protect themselves from the virus infection, “If they go outside from their home for their emergency needs, they must wear masks,” she said.
When the people return home, Nasima said, they must clean their hands with an alcohol-based hand rub or soaps, and their wearing clothes have to be washed by detergents to ensure proper hygiene.
The health official said all health organizations and hospitals should properly examine the standard of the protective gears to ensure safety of their healthcare professionals.
According the DGHS, 1,68,350 people were kept at both home and institutional quarantine and over 84,017 people were released from quarantine, while the number of people who currently remain in quarantine is 84,333.
It added a total of 601 institutions have been prepared across the country for keeping over 30,635 people in quarantine, adding 995 people have now been kept in isolation.
The health service organization said as part of taking preventative measures to stop imported cases of COVID-19, the authorities of all gateways, including airports, land ports and waterways, are continuing screening of all foreign returnees.
It added the government has collected 15,7,190 PPE so far, of which 12,88,317 were distributed and 3,58,092 are in stock.
The DGHS sources said every day the government is collecting nearly one lakh PPE and of those, 60,000 to 70000 PPE are being distributed among healthcare providers.
By this month, the number of procurement of PPE will reach 20 lakh, they added.
They also said that the government is strictly maintaining standard of all kinds of protective equipment including PPE, surgical masks and gloves to ensure safety of medical professionals.
The DGHS sources said in case of critical COVID-19 patients, special facilities including oxygen, ICU and dialysis units are needed in hospitals. At present, the country has 192 ICUs and 40 dialysis units, they added.
They said till today, over 31,58,092 lakh 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.
The contact hotline and mobile numbers are 16263; 333; 10655 and 01944333222 – to receive information and treatment facilities on COVID-19.
As of April 23, 2020, 11.11 GMT, 185,166 people have died so far from the coronavirus COVID-19 outbreak and there are currently 2,656,622 confirmed cases in 210 countries and territories, according to Worldomete, 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.