Covid-19: Bangladesh records highest 45 deaths, 3,171 cases in a day

Bangladesh recorded the highest 45 deaths -- 33 men and 12 women -- from the deadly Covid-19 in a 24-hour span, taking the total number of fatalities to 975.

The country also marked 3,000 fresh cases in a single day with a record 3,171 new Covid-19 patients, taking the number of total confirmed cases to 71,675.

Additional Director General (Administration) of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), Prof Nasima Sultana, revealed the latest figures from Dhaka on Tuesday afternoon, in a daily online bulletin on the Covid-19 situation.

The record of deaths and cases comes at a time when the country has reopened operations of all offices, businesses, and transports on a limited scale after the end of the general holiday, which was extended in phases until May 30, to control the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. The limited reopening will remain in force until June 15.

Rate of fatalities 1.36%

Prof Nasima, also the DGHS acting director general (DG), said of the 45 deceased, 28 were from Dhaka division, 11 from Chittagong division, and two each from Rajshahi, Sylhet, and Rangpur divisions. 

The death toll accounts for 1.36% of the total infected.

Reporting the deaths by age, she said two were between 11 and 20 years old, two were aged 21 to 30, five were 31 to 40 years of age, three were between the ages of 41 and 50, 15 were 51 to 60 years of age, 10 were between 61 and 70, and eight were aged between 71 and 80. 

Earlier, Bangladesh registered the highest number of Covid-19 deaths (42) in a single day on Sunday and Monday.  

Deaths from the coronavirus infection crossed the 900 mark in Bangladesh on Monday while the country recorded the first fatality on March 18. The country crossed the 100 mark in deaths on April 20.

21.62% test positive in 24 hours

Between Monday and Tuesday, 14,664 samples were tested in 55 labs, out of 56, across the country, and 3,171 of them or 21.62% turned out to be Covid-19 positive, the DGHS official said.

With that, the daily positivity percentage in the country remained over 20% for the fifth consecutive day. It was 21.13% on Monday, 20.88% on Sunday, 21.10% on Saturday, and 20.07% on Friday.

The daily positivity percentage in Bangladesh reached an all-time high on June 2, with 22.91% of the total number of samples tested in a day coming back positive.

On June 2, the country logged 2,911 Covid-19 cases, highest in a 24-hour span, since the first cases reported back in March.

In all, 425,595 tests have been conducted so far, she said.

Recovery rate 21.40%

In the briefing, the DGHS acting DG also said that 777 more Covid-19 patients recovered from the infection in the last 24 hours.

So far 15,336 people (21.40% of all infected) have made full recovery after being infected by the novel coronavirus.

Across the country, 557 more people were taken to isolation in the last 24 hours, while 216 were released. As many as 7,893 patients remained in isolation now.

During the same period, another 2,602 people were home and institutionally quarantined and 2,036 were released. At present, 56,638 people are quarantined across the country.

On March 8, health authorities in Bangladesh reported the first case of Covid-19, a severe acute respiratory illness caused by the new strain of coronavirus, Sars-CoV-2. The virus broke out in China's Wuhan in December last year and quickly spread throughout the world, becoming a pandemic in less than three months.

The fast spreading coronavirus has claimed 409,092 lives and infected 7,216,145 people across the world till 3:15pm on Tuesday, according to Worldometer.

As many as 3,552,317 people have recovered from Covid-19 which has spread to 213 countries and territories across the planet.