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Four more coronavirus patients have made complete recovery during this period, Director of the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) Prof Meerjady Sabrina Flora said at a virtual press briefing on Saturday.
"In the past 24 hours, IEDCR has tested 42 samples and BITID in Chattogram five but all of them were negative," she said, adding that 1,068 samples have so far been tested.
So far, 15 people have made recovery. Prof Flora said the patients were hospitalised for around eight to 16 days and they were aged between two and above 50 years.
"Most of the time we have treated them based on the symptoms," she said adding that certain patients received treatments for comorbidites.
Currently, 47 people are in isolation.
‘Partial community transmission’
The IEDCR director said there are signs of community transmission of the coronavirus in some areas.
"There has been community transmission in limited scale in one or two areas. We’ve separated those areas immediately...we’ve also found clustered patients in some places where no infections were found outside those clusters,” she said.
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Dr Flora noted that this situation cannot be described as a full-scale community transmission.
“We’ve been closely monitoring such infections," she said, adding that in the past 24 hours, IEDCR received 3,450 calls through hotlines regarding coronavirus infection.
PCR testing labs being set up
DGHS Management Information System Director Dr Md Habibur Rahman said PCR testing labs will be set up at Dhaka Medical College Hospital, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, Armed Forces Pathology Institute, National Institute of Laboratory Medicine and Kurmitola General Hospital.
"PCR labs are being set up at Rangpur and Rajshahi medical colleges and skilled persons have been sent to Mymensingh Medical College to initiate the set up there," he added.
Sixteen additional ventilators have been installed at Kuwait Bangladesh Friendship Government Hospital and eight more are being set up at Sheikh Russel Gastro Liver Institute & Hospital.
What’s the current situation?
Novel coronavirus COVID-19, first reported in China, is affecting 199 countries and territories and two international conveyances – the Diamond Princess cruise ship harboured in Yokohama, Japan, and the Holland America's MS Zaandam cruise ship.
The virus has infected 617,700 people globally until Saturday and killed 28,331 of them with a mortality rate of 17 percent, according to worldometer.
Of the total cases, 137,336 (or 83 percent) have recovered but another 451,983 people are undergoing treatment. Of them, 24,015 are in serious or critical condition.