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Another person died from coronavirus in the country in the last 24 hours, raising the death toll to 21, according to Health Minister Zahid Maleque.
"In the last 24 hours, we’ve identified an additional of 112 people with coronavirus infection and one person died during the period," he said on Thursday.
Joining the daily health bulletin broadcast from the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR), the minister said as the number has spiked, the range of testing has also increased.
In the past 24 hours, 1,097 samples were tested across the country. "We’ve to stay indoors, as experts suggest. Our Prime Minister has advised the same," said the minister.
He also claimed that the country has ample supply of ventilators. "Our country has 550 ventilators and we've ordered 380 more. ICUs and ventilators are not the same."
The minister noted that a number of buildings are being set up as isolation units.
"A building owned by Bashundhara Group is being prepared as a 2000-bed isolation unit, a market in DNCC area will be prepared as another 1400-bed isolation unit," he said.
IEDCR director Prof Meerjady Sabrina Flora said everyone must stay indoors as the rate of infection has gone up significantly. "We've no other alternative to staying indoors to stop the spread," she said while sharing details about the infected people.
Of the 112 newly-affected people in the country, 70 are men and 42 are women said Prof Flora adding that two-thirds of the total infected people are male.
"Among the 112 newly-infected ones, three are below 10 years, nine between 11 and 20 years, 25 between 21 and 30 years, 24 people between 31 and 40 years, 17 people between 41 and 50 years, 23 between 51 and 60 years, and 11 people are aged over 60 years," she added.
The only patient who died in the last 24 hours was a resident of Dhaka. "He was over 60 years," the IEDCR director said.
She also said among the new patients, 62 people were affected in Dhaka and 13 in Narayanganj. The rest are from other districts.
Across the country, 1,486 people were sent to either home or institutional quarantine in the last 24 hours, said DGHS additional director general Dr Samia Tahmina.
Meanwhile, the global death toll from coronavirus has reached 88,502 as of Thursday morning.
Besides, it has infected 1,518,719 people around the world after the highly contagious disease was first reported in China in December last year, according to worldometer.