Special Correspondent: The death toll from coronavirus has reached 12,045 as 40 more people died from the disease in the last 24 hours.

Besides, 1,140 more tested positive for the virus, raising the number of such cases to 777,397.

Directorate General of Health Services confirmed the information through a press release on Saturday.

In the last 24 hours, 15,296 samples were examined and out of them 1,140 got positive results for the virus. Apart from, 2,928 more recovered from the virus, taking the total recoveries to 718,249, the press release added.

Bangladesh reported its first three cases of COVID-19 on March 8 last year.

The new coronavirus pandemic first emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December in 2019.

The World Health Organisation declared the coronavirus crisis a pandemic on March 11 last year.

The deadly virus spread to 220 countries and territories, killing some 3,332,785 people globally, according to Worldometer, a website which compiles number of new coronavirus cases and deaths from it.

As many as 160,365,931 people worldwide caught the virus. Among them, 138,156,565 people recovered from the virus, the website said.