Live Correspondent: Bangladesh today recorded 39 novel coronavirus (COVID-19) deaths and 2,907 fresh cases overnight.

The recovery count rose to 1,50,437 after another 2,067 patients were discharged from the hospitals during the period, a top health official said.

“Thirty-nine more COVID-19 patients died in the last 24 hours, increasing the death toll from the pandemic to 3,438,” 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 2,60,507 as 2,907 new cases were confirmed in the last 24 hours.

The health official also informed that a total of 12,849 samples were tested at 85 authorized laboratories across the country during the time.

Of the total sample tests in the past 24 hours, 22.62 percent tested positive, while 20.46 percent cases were detected from the total tests conducted so far, Nasima added.

Among the total infections, 57.75 percent patients have recovered, while 1.32 percent died so far since the first COVID-19 positive cases were reported in the country on March 8, she said.

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

Among the 39 deaths, 35 are male and four female, she said, adding one is in his 20s, one in his 30s while three are in their 40s, 10 in their 50s, 13 in their 60s, six in their 70s and four in their 80s.

According to the division-wise data, 12 deaths took place in Dhaka division, six in Khulna division, seven in Chattogram and eight in Rajshahi division and rests are in other divisions.

Among the total 3,438 deaths, Nasima said, 1,639 deaths occurred in Dhaka division, 811 in Chattogram division, 221 in Rajshahi division, 265 in Khulna division, 134 in Barishal division, 158 in Sylhet division, 135 in Rangpur division and 75 in Mymensingh division.

She said a total of 12,73,168 samples have so far been tested since the detection of the first COVID-19 cases in the country.

Nasima said in order to make treatment facilities easily available for the COVID-19 patients, the government has introduced telemedicine services, comprising 70 physicians and 20 health workers, for round the clock in the country.

“In the past 24 hours, 4,373 coronavirus patients received treatments from telemedicine services. Of them, 60.82 percent were mild cases, 13.43 percent moderate and 1.44 percent critical cases,” she added.

A total of 186,714 people have so far received healthcare services from telemedicine, it said.

The DGHS said 1,85,87,728 people received healthcare services from hotline mobile numbers and health web portals as the government formed a group of medical professionals to provide emergency healthcare services.

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

As of Aug 10, 2020, 09.25 GMT, 734,247 have died so far from the COVID-19 outbreak and there are 20,040,805 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, 10 August (campuslive24.com)//MI