Three more people died from coronavirus in Bangladesh in the last 24 hours, raising the death toll to 20, according to the Institute of Epidemiology Disease Control and Research (IEDCR).

Besides, 54 people tested positive for COVID-19 during the period, raising the number of such cases in the country to 218, said IEDCR director Prof Meerjady Sabrina Flora in its daily bulletin on Wednesday.

"In the last 24 hours, 54 people were diagnosed with the disease. The total number of infected people in the country is now 218. Three more people died from the infection in the past 24 hours. The total death toll is now 20," she said.

No new patient made recovery keeping the total number of recovered patients at 33.

Among the newly-infected people, 33 are male and 21 are female. "Thirty-nine of the 54 are from Dhaka, one from the area adjacent to Dhaka and the rest are from outside Dhaka," she added.

"The age range of the newly-identified people are as follows --- five people aged from 11 to 20 years, 15 aged from 21 to 30 years, 10 aged from 31 to 40 years, seven aged from 41 to 50 years, seven people aged from 51 to 60, and 10 people over the age of 60," said Prof Flora.

In the past 24 hours, 988 samples were collected from across the country and 981 tested.

Across the country, 737 more people were sent to home quarantine in the past 24 hours and 16 to isolation. 139 are currently in institutional quarantine.

So far, 10157 people are currently in home and institutional quarantine across the country.

Directorate General of Health Services Additional Director General Dr Samia Tahmina said the country has 220518 PPEs in stock.

Earlier, she said no new recovery does not necessarily mean that the patients are in bad condition.

"We didn’t find anyone negative in PCR test in the past two days but they’re in good condition," she added.