DGHS reports eight more coronavirus deaths, 636 cases in 24 hrs

NEWS DESK

Eight people died of coronavirus and 636 tested positive in the 24 hours to 8:00am, the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) said on Saturday.

With the latest, the number of coronavirus deaths and infections now stand respectively at 214 and 13,370, said Prof Dr Nasima Sultana, additional director general (administration) of DGHS, during an online press briefing at 2:30pm.

Meanwhile, 313 coronavirus patients recovered, taking the number of total recoveries to 2414, she said.

According to Prof Nasima, the new cases of coronavirus were found after testing 5465 samples across the country during the  period of time under review.

The country reported the first cases of coronavirus on March 10 and the first death 10 days later on March 18.

In an effort to contain the virus, the government has since March 26 enforced a countrywide shutdown but numbers of new cases continue to increase.

The major increase in coronavirus cases has come from the densely populated cities of Dhaka, Narayanganj.

Globally, as of 2:45pm, coronavirus infected 4,027,068 people, according to worldometer.info, a website that provides real-time updates.

Of them, 276,386 died, 1,393,507 recovered, meaning that there are now 2,357,482 coronavirus active cases, the data shows.

Coronavirus was first reported in China in December last year.

As the virus began sweeping across the world, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the coronavirus crisis a pandemic on March 11.