Total cases rise to 87,520; Death toll jumps to 1,171
Bangladesh on Sunday saw another surge in coronavirus cases after the health authorities confirmed the detection of 3,141 new patients in the last 24 hours, raising the total cases to 87,520.
“The virus claimed 32 more lives during the same period, taking the death toll in the country to1,171” said Additional Director General of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) Prof Dr Nasima Sultana at its daily online briefing.
In the last 24 hours,60 laboratories across the country tested 14,505 samples, she added.
Bangladesh confirmed its first cases on March 8 and the first death on March 18 but it has been seeing a sharp rise in both new cases and deaths in recent weeks.
According to JHU, Bangladesh has come up to 18th position from the number of confirmed coronavirus cases as of Sunday.
‘Red Zone’ in Bangladesh
As COVID-19 cases and fatalities continue to rise alarmingly in the country, the government has taken decision to identify areas with high infection rates and categorise them into Red Zone.
All the preparations were made to bring virus hotspots ‘Red Zones’ under lockdown and declaring general holidays there to prevent entry to and exit from those areas.
“The areas where infection rate is high will be declared as ‘Red Zone’ and general holidays will be announced in those areas but countrywide general holidays will not be declared anymore,” State Minister for Public Administration Farhad Hossain told UNB on Saturday.
However, offices will remain open as usual maintaining health guidelines even after June 15.
Hossain also said that the decision was taken in this regard which will be finally approved by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
Global situation
The global death toll from Covid-19 reached 429,666 on Sunday morning while the confirmed cases were 7,764,977, according to the Centre for System Science and Engineering of the Johns Hopkins University.
According to JHU data, Brazil and Russia have come up to the second and third positions after the US with 850,514 and 519,458 confirmed coronavirus cases as of Sunday.
Meanwhile, South Asian country India has come up to the fourth position after Russia with 308,993 confirmed Covid-19 cases. The country has so far reported 8,884 deaths.
On the other hand, South American country Brazil counted the second highest deaths after the US and reported 42,720 lives from the virus till the date.
Among the countries, the US has been the worst-hit with the highest recorded deaths of 115,420 patients and about 2,074,082 confirmed cases.
In the US, New York State alone counted 30,795 deaths till the date.
The UK has the third-highest death toll at 41,747, followed by Italy with 34,301, France 29,401 and Spain 27,136, according to Johns Hopkins University.
Coronavirus cases were first reported in China in December last year.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) declared the coronavirus crisis a pandemic on March 11.UNB
