Bangladesh today confirmed 10 more deaths from the novel coronavirus and 492 new cases of infection after testing 2,779 samples in last 24 hours.

With this, the death toll from the deadly virus rises to 101 and the number of total infected person stands at 2,948.

"Among the dead patients, eight are male and two female. Five of them were from Dhaka, four from Narayanganj and one from Narsingdi. Four of them were aged above 60," Additional Director General of Health Directorate Nasima Sultana said this in a virtual briefing today.

"10 more patients returned home after recovering from the virus in last 24 hours, making total 85 cured," she added.

Nasima Sultana said, "The infection rate in Gazipur has increased by 19.5%, Kishoreganj by 13.5% and Narsingdi by 6%. Dhaka and Narayanganj have been consistent with their infection rate."

"Sample collection has increased by 10% compared to the previous session. In past 24-hour, 2,779 virus testing was conducted which is 5.5% higher then the previous session. The total number of tests conducted so far are 26,604 in the country," she added further.

"Some 57 new potential Covid-19 suspects have been taken into isolation facilities, making the total to stand at 713 after 877 left thus far. Currently, the number of people in quarantine are 80,402, including 75,747 in home quarantine and 4,655 in institutional quarantine, after 1845 were freed from quarantine obligation," she said.

As many as 93,359 hotline calls were received on three designated numbers in last 24 hours, that makes the total hotline services provided so far to 2,913,707.

Through mobile and website, 19,079 services were provided in last 24 hours, making the total to 1,296,185 by far.

Till date, a total of 6,71,891 thermal screenings were conducted at different ports, including- 18 at airports, 211 at seaports and 92 at land ports.

Central Medical Stores Depot (CMSD) Director Brigadier General Mohammad Shahidullah assured that N-95 or equipotential KN95/P2 masks will be made available at every hospitals where those are necessary within one week.

"30% of our masks are imported from China, when 70% of the them are made in Bangladesh following the guideline of WHO, and the production quality are being monitored by CMHD technical committee," he said in the briefing.

The CMSD director also said, "During the distribution of personal protective equipment (PPE), we have been giving priority to Covid hospitals, ICU workers, PCR lab technicians, port screening authorities and the field level swab-sample collection workers."

He further said, "The government has spent around Tk176 crore to collect 1,467,040 PPE so far, among which 1,093,119 have been distributed and 373,921 are in stock."