Bangladesh passes China with virus deaths

Bangladesh has surpassed China in terms of the total number of deaths due to Covid-19 with the health directorate reporting 26 deaths in the past 24 hours till 8:30am yesterday.

The total number of Covid-19 related deaths yesterday rose to 4,759 which is 1.40 percent of all cased detected so far.

Since the virus first erupted in China, this country of the second-largest economy witnessed 4,734 deaths so far, according to John Hopkins University.

Bangladesh has now become the country with 29th highest death toll -- one step behind Asian-African country Egypt.

Among other South Asian nations, Pakistan is in 25th position with 6,383 deaths while India is in third position with 79,722 deaths.

In terms of the total number cases, India is in the second position with 4,846,427 cases recorded as of yesterday while Bangladesh is the 15th highest country of total confirmed cases.

As 1,812 people were tested positive for the viral infection in those 24 hours, the positivity rate stands at 12.75 percent against a total of 14,216 samples tested, according to the directorate general of health services (DGHS) press release.

With this, the total number of confirmed cases rose to 3,39,332.

Four of the yesterday's deceased were females and 22 were males while 25 of them died in hospitals and one at home.

Two of them were aged between 31 and 40, three between 41 and 50, 11 between 51 and 60 and the rest 10 were above 60 years.

One of them was from Rangpur division, two from Rajshahi, four from Chattogram and the highest 19 were from Dhaka division, according to the press release.

A total of 3,195 people were undergoing treatment in general beds while 295 ICU beds in the Covid-19 dedicated hospitals across the country as of yesterday morning.