Live Correspondent: Bangladesh today recorded 35 novel coronavirus (COVID-19) deaths and 2,548 fresh cases overnight.

The recovery count rose to 1,20,976 after another 1,768 patients were discharged from the hospitals during the period, a top health official said.

“Thirty-five more COVID-19 patients died in the last 24 hours, increasing the death toll from the pandemic to 2836,” Additional Director General of Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) Prof Nasima Sultana told a virtual media briefing at DGHS in the city this afternoon.

She said the tally of infections has surged to 2,18,658 as 2,548 new cases were confirmed in the last 24 hours.

The health official also informed that a total of 12,027 samples were tested at 80 authorized laboratories across the country during the time.

Among the total infections, 55.33 percent patients have recovered while 1.30 percent died so far since the first COVID-19 positive cases were reported in the country on March 8, she said.

Nasima dubbed Dhaka, Narayanganj and Chattogram as COVID-19 “hotspots” because the maximum numbers of cases were detected in the three cities.

Among the 35 deaths, 28 are male and seven female. she said adding, one is in his 30s, four in their 40s, eight in their 50s, 16 in their 60s, four in their 70s, three in their 80s, one in his 90s while one is above 100.

According to the division-wise data, 11 deaths took place in Dhaka division, six in Chattogram division, six in Khulna division, four in Sylhet division and four in Rangpur division and rests are in other divisions.

She said as of today, a total of 2,836 people — 2,237 males and 599 females — died from COVID-19 in the country.

Of them, Nasima said, 1,372 deaths occurred in Dhaka division, 707 in Chattogram division, 159 in Rajshahi division, 194 in Khulna division, 109 in Barishal division, 133 in Sylhet division, 104 in Rangpur division and 58 in Mymensingh division.

She said a total of 10,91,034 samples have so far been tested since the detection of the first COVID-19 cases in the country.

The DGHS said in order to make treatment facilities easily available for COVID-19 patients, the government has introduced telemedicine services comprising 70 physicians and 20 health workers for round the clock in the country. As of today,1,20,575 people have so far received healthcare services from telemedicine, they added.

It said nearly 1,73,93,553 people received healthcare services from hotline mobile numbers and health web portals as the government formed a group of medical professionals to provide emergency health services.

To receive information and treatment facilities on COVID-19, the contact hotline and mobile numbers are 16263; 333; 10655 and 01944333222.

As of July 24, 2020, 10.09 GMT, 636,941 have died so far from the COVID-19 outbreak and there are 15,675,770 currently confirmed cases in 212 countries and territories, according to Worldometer, a reference website that provides counters and real-time statistics for diverse topics.

China was the world’s first country which on January 11 reported the first death from the novel coronavirus in Wuhan, the capital of Central China’s Hubei province.

Dhaka, 24 July (campuslive24.com)//IH