News Desk: Bangladesh today recorded 46 coronavirus (COVID-19) deaths and 3,489 fresh cases overnight. The recovery count rose to 80,838 after another 2,736 patients were discharged from the hospitals during the period, a top health official said. “Forty-six more COVID-19 patients died in the last 24 hours, increasing the death toll from the pandemic to 2197,” Additional Director General of Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) Prof Nasima Sultana told a virtual media briefing at DGHS in the city.

She said the tally of infections has surged to 1, 72,134 as 3489 new cases were confirmed in the last 24 hours.

The health official also informed that a total of 15,672 samples were tested at authorised laboratories across the country during the time.

Among the total infections, 46.96 percent patients have recovered while 1.28 percent died so far since the first COVID-19 positive case was reported in the country on March 8, she said.

Bangladesh confirmed the first coronavirus death on March 18, ten days after the detection of the first COVID-19 cases.

Ruling out the shortage of beds and ICUs for the COVID-19 patients, Nasima said there are 6,305 beds and 142 ICUs in 16 COVID-19 dedicated hospitals in Dhaka city.

The country has a total of 14,945 beds and 394 ICUs for the COVID-19 patients, the health official said adding there is no scarcity of ICUs and beds in the hospital for COVID-19 patients.

Nasima urged the people to abide by health rules to protect themselves from the infection of the deadly virus.

“We’ve to be aware more about codes … Health protection measures are the best remedies to prevent the pandemic,” she added.

She laid emphasis on maintaining three heath directives — wearing mask, physical distancing and washing hands by soap — to contain the spread of COVID-19.

Referring to latest health directives of the World Health Organization (WHO), the health official said the people must wear masks to protect themselves from infections of coronavirus and mentioned that scientifically cloth-made mask is equally effective to prevent the virus.

“We can reuse cloth-made masks after washing it by detergents or soaps,” Nasima said.

She said nearly 75 percent COVID-19 patients are taking treatment from their homes, and many of them are being cured every day after receiving treatment through hotlines.

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

Among the 46 deaths, 38 are male and eight female, Nasima said adding, two are in their 20s, two in their 30s, one in his 40s, 15 in their 50s, 16 in their 60s, six in their 70s, three in their 80s and one in their 90s.

According to the division-wise data, 12 deaths took place in Dhaka division, 14 in Chattogram division, and nine in Khulna division while rests are in other divisions.

Of the total 2,197 deaths, 1,139 are in Dhaka Division, 971 in Chattogram division, 110 in Rajshahi division, 106 in Khulna division, 75 in Barishal division, 95 in Sylhet division, 66 in Rangpur division and 52 in Mymensingh division.

As of July 8, among the COVID-19-prone districts, Chattogram district including city areas and Narayanganj including city areas are the most hardest- hit ones with 9,888 and 5424 cases respectively, according to the IEDCR data.

It was followed by Cumilla district with 4025 cases, Gazipur district including city areas with 3713 cases, Dhaka district, excluding city areas, with 3391 cases, Bogura district with 3307 cases, Sylhet district including city areas with 2809 cases, Cox’s Bazar district with 2,613 cases, Faridpur district with 2047 cases, Khulna district including city areas with 2435 cases, Noakhali district with 2362 cases, Munshiganj district with 2206 cases, Mymensingh district including city areas with 1889 cases, Barishal district including city areas with 1686, Kishorganj district with 1646 cases, Narsingdi district with 1495 cases, Chandpur district with 1187 cases, Brahmanbaria district with 1178 cases, Rajshahi district including city areas with 1085 cases and Sunamganj district with 1062 cases.

She said a total of 8,89,152 samples have so far been tested since the detection of the first COVID-19 cases in the country.

A total of 3, 84,292 people were kept at both home and institutional quarantine and 3, 21,303 people were released from quarantine, while the number of people who are now in quarantine is 62,998.

It said a total of 632 institutions have been prepared across the country for keeping over 31,991 people in quarantine, adding nearly 16,856 people have now been kept in isolation.

The government has collected 25, 28,285 PPE so far, of which over 24,25,764 were distributed and 1,0,2081 are in stock, the DGHS said.

It said 1,52,940,38 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 8, 2020, 10.21 GMT, 547,148 have died so far from the COVID-19 outbreak and there are 11,976,717 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.