Four more people, including two physicians, have been diagnosed with COVID-19 in Bangladesh, taking the total number of confirmed cases in the country to 48.
However, no patient died from the virus in the last 24 hours, said Director of the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) Prof Meerjady Sabrina Flora at an online press briefing on Friday.
“In the past 24 hours, four more people have been diagnosed with the virus and the total number of confirmed cases is so far 48. Three of the newly-infected patients came in contact with a previously-infected patient, and we’re still tracking the source of infection of the fourth one,” she said.
Among the four infected people, two are doctors who came in contact with COVID-19 patients while treating them, she said.
“Two of the four newly-infected patients are from outside of Dhaka and two are within. Two patients have comorbidites but so far all the patients, including these four, are in stable condition,” Flora said.
She also mentioned that so far more than a thousand people have been tested for the viral infection.
“In the past 24 hours, 3,321 calls have been made to the IEDCR hotline. During this period, 106 samples were tested. So far, a total of 1,026 samples have been tested,” said Prof Flora.
“One of the patients is aged between 20 to 30, one between 31 to 40, one between 41 to 50 and one between 51 to 60,” she added.
Apart from IEDCR, the testing facility has been extended to Dhaka Shishu Hospital, Public Health Institution and Bangladesh Institute of Tropical and Infectious Disease (BITID) in Chattogram, the IEDCR Director reiterated.
She also mentioned that hotlines have been set up to reach the IEDCR at the district level.
Prof Flora thanked the Chinese and Singapore governments as well as local organisations for providing testing kits, personal protection equipment (PPE) and other sanitising equipment.
“We received 10,000 testing kits from Singapore previously. China sent around 1000 kits yesterday. They also sent PPEs and thermometers. Apart from the World Health Organization and Unicef, international organisations like BRAC and ICDDR, B are also providing PPE. I thank all of them,” she said.
The IEDCR Director said there is a chance of getting infected from the dead body of coronavirus patient while bathing it before burial.
“Only risk of getting infected from the dead body of a coronavirus patient is while bathing it. PPE will be provided to those who will complete the task. Also, we’re following proper religious matters in this regard,” she said.
Bangladesh has so far reported five deaths from coronavrius. Besides, 11 other COVID-19 patients have already made recovery.
Currently, 32 patients are under treatment.
The death toll from the coronavirus or COVID-19 has jumped to 24,087 globally as of Friday.
It has so far infected 532,224 people around the world, according to worldometer.
Of them, 383,811 are currently being treated with 19,357 being in serious or critical condition.
So far, 148,413 cases had outcomes and of them, 124,326 (84 percent) recovered and 16 percent died.
COVID-19 is affecting 199 countries and territories around the world and one international conveyance (the Diamond Princess cruise ship harboured in Yokohama, Japan).
source: UNB
