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Dhaka and Narayanganj under massive threat

Bangladesh has broken all the previous record as the country reported its highest single-day increase in Covid-19 cases on Tuesday, with 41 new positive cases and five deaths.

The total number of confirmed coronavirus positive cases now stands at 164 in the country, with the death toll at 17. Of the five new deaths till Monday evening, two were in Dhaka.

Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) Director Dr Meerjady Sabrina Flora said this during an online health bulletin of Covid-19 on Tuesday.

Narayanganj is added with Dhaka as new cluster of coronavirus, she said.

The IEDCR director said: “Among the newly infected 41 patients, 20 patients in Dhaka and 15 patients are in Narayanganj.”

She also said, among the five deceased, four were male and one female. Off them two were above sixty years old, two were between age of 50 to 60, another one was between 40 to 50 years old.

According to the bulletin, among the 41 Covid-19 positive cases, 4 are below 20 and 33 are between 20 to below 60. Only five patients are above 60.

The Covid-19 infection, which was first reported in Bangladesh on March 8, has now spread to 15 districts, according to data compiled by the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).

The daily testing rate remained below 100 per day till March 25, a day before the government imposed a shutdown to encourage people to stay at home in order to fight the spread of SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus which causes Covid-19.

The DGHS increased the volume of testing from end of the last week and continues to find higher numbers of positive cases each day.

On Tuesday, the health authorities tested 792 samples almost double from the previous day to confirm the 41 new cases.

Till now, Bangladesh tested samples from 4,402 suspected Covid-19 patients. Among the 164 who tested positive for the coronavirus, 63 have returned home following recovery and 101 are still undergoing treatment.

The fast spreading coronavirus, which was first reported in China's Wuhan, has claimed 73,824 lives and infected 1,329,303 people across the world till date, according to Worldometers.