News Desk : Bangladesh has registered 67 new fatalities from the COVID-19 illness, the most in a day since May 2, with 24 of them reported in Khulna, a new virus hotspot.

This brings the death toll to 13,466, according to the latest government data released on Saturday.

The tally of infections surged to 848,027 after 3,057 new COVID-19 cases were reported in the same period.

Another 1,725 people recovered from the illness through treatment at home and hospital care during that time, bringing the total to 780,146.

As many as 16,964 samples were tested across the country, yielding a positivity rate of 18.02 percent.

The latest official figures put the recovery rate at 92 percent, while the mortality rate stands at 1.59 percent.

Dhaka reported 1,411 new cases in the last 24 hours, the most among the eight divisions in the tally.

After posting over 1,000 new cases a day earlier, the daily count in the Khulna division dropped to 625 on Saturday but was still the second-highest tally in the country.

The alarming spike in COVID-19 cases and deaths has prompted the authorities to impose a strict 7-day lockdown in Khulna city and district, starting on Jun 22.

Globally, over 177.83 million people have been infected by the novel coronavirus and 3.85 million have died, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

Infections have been reported in more than 210 countries and territories since the first cases were identified in China in December 2019.