FBD Desk:

Bangladesh recorded 834 fresh novel coronavirus (COVID-19) cases overnight, the lowest in nearly five months, Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) said today.

The DGHS in a press release, however, said 30 more COVID-19 patients died in the last 24 hours, increasing the death toll from the pandemic to 7,428.

It said the recovery count rose to 4,50,488 after another 1,685 patients were discharged from the hospitals during the period.

The release said the tally of infections has surged to 5,0,80,99 as 834 new cases were confirmed in the last 24 hours.A total of 9912 samples were tested at 163 authorized laboratories across the country during the time.

Of the total sample tests in the past 24 hours, 8.41 percent tested positive, while 16.08 percent cases were detected from the total tests conducted so far, the release added.

Among the total infections, 88.66 percent patients have recovered, while 1.46 percent died so far since the first COVID-19 positive cases were reported in the country on March 8.

Among the 30 deaths, 23 are male and seven female, the press release said, adding four are in their 40s, five in their 50s while 21 are above 60 years.

According to the division-wise data, 20 deaths took place in Dhaka division and rests are in other divisions.Among the total 7,428 deaths, 4,064 deaths occurred in Dhaka division, 1,386 in Chattogram division, 431 in Rajshahi division, 523 in Khulna division, 236 in Barishal division, 290 in Sylhet division, 336 in Rangpur division and 164 in Mymensingh division, according to the press release.

A total of 31,59,260 samples have so far been tested since the detection of the first COVID-19 cases in the country.

The DGHS said in order to make treatment facilities easily available for the COVID-19 patients, the government has introduced telemedicine services comprising 100 physicians for round the clock in the country.A total of 6,56,356 people have so far received healthcare services from telemedicine.

The DGHS said 2,32,49,857 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 December 26, 2020, 11:04 GMT, 1,759,266 people have died so far from the COVID-19 outbreak and there are currently 80,287,068 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.(Source: BSS)