Eight more deaths were reported from dengue in 24 hours till Tuesday morning, raising the number of fatalities from the mosquito-borne disease in Bangladesh to 223 this year. During the period, 1, 108 more patients were hospitalised with viral fever, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS). Of them, 164 dengue patients were admitted in hospital under Dhaka North City Corporation while 174 were hospitalized in Dhaka South City Corporation.  Read: Dengue: One more death reported in 24hrs Some 3,680 patients are receiving treatment in different hospitals across the country. A total of 44, 764 dengue cases have been reported since January 1, 2024. Last year, 1,705 people lost their lives due to dengue, making it the deadliest year on record. The DGHS recorded 321,179 dengue cases and 3, 18,749 recoveries last year.

Three more deaths were reported from dengue in 24 hours till Wednesday morning, raising the number of fatalities from the mosquito-borne disease in Bangladesh to 196 this year. During the period, 1,033 more patients were hospitalised with viral fever, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS). Dengue: Sharp spike in September sees this year's deaths double in a month Of them, 263 dengue patients were admitted in hospital under Dhaka North City Corporation while 164 were hospitalized in Dhaka South City Corporation. Some 3,475 patients are receiving treatment in different hospitals across the country. Sharp rise in dengue cases puts strains on country’s fragile healthcare system A total of 39,822 dengue cases have been reported since January 1, 2024. Last year, 1,705 people lost their lives due to dengue, making it the deadliest year on record, with 321,179 cases recorded.  

Around 1,484 people were killed and 2,485 others injured in 1,302 road crashes across Bangladesh in last three till March 31 in 2023. It means, 16 (16.48) people died on average per day during the period. During the period the number of accidents involving motorcycles was the highest. Some 579 people died in 527 motorcycle accidents which are  40.47 and 39.01 percent of total fatalities and accidents respectively, according to a report of Shipping and Communication Reporters Forum (SCRF) released on Sunday (April 09, 2023). Read: 2 teens on motorcycle killed in Cumilla road accident According to the organization, the report has been prepared based on the information published in 12 Bengali national dailies, five English national dailies, nine online news portals and news agencies and six regional dailies. In the report, the SCRF has recommended maintaining the ban on motorcycle movement on the Padma Bridge and banning his vehicle on all highways during Eid travel to avoid accidents. The report said that maximum 479 accidents occurred in March where 584 people lost lives and 1,102 injured. Lowest 392 accidents resulted in 411 fatalities and 1,102 injuries respectively in February. Besides, 489 people died in 431 road accidents in January. Read: Student killed in bike accident in Dhaka In these three months, maximum 421 accidents occurred on highways which is 32.33 percent of total accidents. Besides, 327 accident occurred on regional roads which is 25.11 percent. SCRF identified 16 causes of road crashes in the report. Unfit vehicles, unskilled and physically unfit drivers, reckless driving, overtaking,  drivers and helpers’ mental exhaustion, non-fixed weekly holiday and working hours. dilapidated roads at different places significant number of risky turning points on national highways and inter-district roads, movement of slow speed three wheelers on highways, lack of capacity of BRTA and the irregularities and corruption of officials and employees concerned and poor traffic management are among those reasons. Read more: Two ninth-graders killed on Sylhet-Tamabil highway as motorcycles collide

Three people were dead and six were injured in a head-on collision between a bus and a pickup van at Aziznagar in Cox's Bazar's Chakaria this morning. The incident happened around 8:30 am at the Aziznagar-12 bridge area on the Chattogram-Cox's Bazar highway, said Khokon Rudra, sub-inspector of Chiringa Highway Police Outpost. Two people were dead on the spot. The condition of the rest of the passengers is critical. The injured have been sent to Chattogram Medical College Hospital. The bus and the pickup van are in police custody. The deceased were identified as Md Hamid, 32; Jahangir Alam; and Naju Miah, 28, of Karmuhuri Para of the same union. The death toll is likely to rise. The deceased were passengers of the pickup van. Witness Mohammad Osman Gani said the accident happened when the pickup van was trying to overtake a motorcycle.

No fresh case or death due to dengue was reported in Bangladesh in the 24 hours to Friday morning. Thirty-six dengue patients, including 16 in the capital, are now receiving treatment at hospitals across the country, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS). So far, the DGHS has recorded 686 dengue cases, 642 recoveries, and eight deaths this year. The country logged 281 dengue deaths in 2022 – the highest on record after 179 deaths recorded in 2019. Also, it recorded 62,423 dengue cases and 61,971 recoveries last year.

Turkish authorities are targeting contractors allegedly linked with buildings that collapsed in the powerful Feb. 6 earthquakes as rescuers found more survivors in the rubble Sunday, including a pregnant woman and two children, in the disaster that killed over 33,000 people. The death toll from the magnitude 7.8 and 7.5 quakes that struck nine hours apart in southeastern Turkey and northern Syria rose to 33,185 and was certain to increase as search teams find more bodies. As despair bred rage at the agonizingly slow rescues, the focus turned to assigning blame. Turkish Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said 131 people were under investigation for their alleged responsibility in the construction of buildings that failed to withstand the quakes. While the quakes were powerful, many in Turkey blame faulty construction for multiplying the devastation. Turkey's construction codes meet current earthquake-engineering standards, at least on paper, but they are rarely enforced, explaining why thousands of buildings toppled over or pancaked down onto the people inside. Among those facing scrutiny were two people arrested in Gaziantep province on suspicion of cutting down columns to make extra room in a building that collapsed, the state-run Anadolu Agency said. The justice ministry said three people were arrested, seven others were detained and another seven were barred from leaving Turkey. Also Read: Turkey detains building contractors as quake deaths pass 33,000 Two contractors held responsible for the destruction of buildings in Adiyaman were arrested Sunday at Istanbul Airport while trying to leave the country, the private DHA news agency and other media reported. One detained contractor, Yavuz Karakus, told DHA: “My conscience is clear. I built 44 buildings. Four of them were demolished. I did everything according to the rules.” Rescuers reported finding more survivors amid increasingly long odds. Thermal cameras were used as crews demanded silence to hear those trapped. In hard-hit Hatay province, a 50-year-old woman who appeared badly injured was carried out by crews in the town of Iskenderun. Similar rescues in the province saved two other women, one of them pregnant, according to broadcasters TRT and HaberTurk. HaberTurk showed a 6-year-old boy rescued from his wrecked home in Adiyaman. An exhausted rescuer removed his surgical mask and took deep breaths as several women cried in joy. Health Minister Fahrettin Koca posted a video of a young girl in a navy blue jumper who was found alive. “There is always hope!” he tweeted. Rescuers in Antakya, elsewhere in Hatay province, pulled a man in his late 20s or 30s from the rubble, saying he was one of nine trapped in the building. He waved weakly as he was removed on a stretcher as workers applauded and chanted, “God is great!” German and Turkish workers rescued an 88-year-old in Kirikhan, German news agency dpa reported. Italian and Turkish rescuers found a 35-year-old man in Antakya who appeared unscathed, private NTV television reported. A child was freed overnight in the town of Nizip, in Gaziantep, state-run Anadolu Agency said, while a 32-year woman was found in a wrecked eight-story building in Antakya and asked for tea when she emerged, according to NTV. Those were the rare exceptions. Backhoes and bulldozers prepared a large cemetery in Antakya’s outskirts as trucks and ambulances brought a steady stream of black body bags. Hundreds of graves were marked with simple wooden planks. Hatay’s airport reopened Sunday after its runway was repaired, and military and commercial planes ferried in supplies and will take away evacuees. There are 34,717 Turkish personnel involved in rescue efforts. On Sunday, Turkey's Foreign Ministry said they were joined by 9,595 personnel from 74 countries, with more on the way. In the Syrian capital of Damascus, the head of the World Health Organization warned that the pain will ripple forward, calling the disaster an “unfolding tragedy that’s affecting millions.” “The compounding crises of conflict, COVID, cholera, economic decline, and now the earthquake have taken an unbearable toll,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. Tedros said WHO experts were waiting to enter northwestern Syria “where we have been told the impact is even worse.” U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Martin Griffiths, visiting the Turkish-Syrian border Sunday, said Syrians are “looking for international help that hasn’t arrived.” “We have so far failed the people in northwest Syria. They rightly feel abandoned,” he said, adding, “My duty and our obligation is to correct this failure as fast as we can.” In the town of Atareb, in opposition-run northern Aleppo province, Abdel-Haseeb Abdel-Raheem returned Sunday to his ruined four-story building to try to salvage any valuables but could find only blankets, pillows and some clothes. His aunt and her husband died there, but their three children survived. With no international rescue efforts in the war-battered region, the 34-year-old had to recover the bodies himself. “You can’t hear someone inside screaming and sit tight. You can’t sit still. You can’t have the heart to hear someone (crying for help) and you do nothing,” he said, sitting above a mound of debris. Political disputes have held up aid convoys sent from areas of northeast Syria controlled by U.S.-backed Kurdish groups to those controlled by the Syrian government and by Turkish-backed rebels who have fought with the Kurdish groups over the years. A U.N. aid convoy sent to northwestern Syria through government-held areas was postponed due to obstruction from Hay’at Tahrir al Sham, an al-Qaida affiliated group ruling Idlib province, a U.N. spokesperson told The Associated Press. Meanwhile, U.N. aid convoys continue to cross from Turkey into northwestern Syria through the Bab al-Hawa border crossing. The first U.N. convoy only reached northwest Syria from Turkey on Thursday, three days after the disaster struck. Before that, it was only a steady stream of bodies coming through Bab al-Hawa: Syrian refugees who had fled the civil war and settled in Turkey but died in the disaster, being returned home for burial. The earthquake death toll in Syria’s northwestern rebel-held region has reached 2,166, according to the rescue group the White Helmets. The overall death toll in Syria stood at 3,553 on Saturday, although the 1,387 deaths reported for government-held parts of the country hadn’t been updated in days. Turkey’s death toll was 29,605 as of Sunday. Turkey’s Justice Ministry announced the establishment of Earthquake Crimes Investigation bureaus to identify contractors and others responsible for building works. It would gather evidence; instruct experts including architects, geologists and engineers; and check building permits and occupation permits. A contractor was detained Friday at Istanbul airport before he could leave the country. He built a luxury 12-story building called Ronesans Rezidans in Antakya, and when it fell, it killed an untold number. He was formally arrested Saturday. In leaked testimony published by Anadolu, the man said the building followed regulations and he did not know why it didn't stay standing. His lawyer suggested his client was a scapegoat. Under programs that allowed building owners to pay fines instead of bringing them up to code, the government agency responsible for enforcement acknowledged in 2019 that over half of all buildings in Turkey — accounting for some 13 million apartments— were not in compliance. The detentions could help direct public anger toward builders and contractors, deflecting it from local and state officials who allowed apparently substandard construction to proceed. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government, already burdened by an economic downturn and high inflation, faces parliamentary and presidential elections in May. The nongovernmental business organization TURKONFED estimated the earthquake damage at $84.1 billion, based on statistics from the devastating 1999 quake in northwestern Turkey, including $70.1 billion in housing and $10.4 billion to gross domestic product. Rescue crews have been overwhelmed by the widespread damage that has affected roads and airports, making it even harder to move quickly. Erdogan acknowledged the initial response was hampered by the damage, with the worst-affected area 500 kilometers (310 miles) in diameter and home to 13.5 million. During a tour Saturday, Erdogan said such a tragedy was rare, referring to it as the “disaster of the century” in multiple speeches. In New York City, mourners gathered Saturday at a mosque to remember a family of four from the borough of Queens who were killed while visiting relatives in Turkey. The Council on American-Islamic Relations said Burak and Kimberly Firik and their sons, aged 1 and 2, died in the disaster. ___ Bilginsoy reported from Istanbul. Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Abby Sewell in Beirut, Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin and Sarah El Deeb in Atareb, Syria, contributed.

China on Saturday reported nearly 60,000 deaths in people who had COVID-19 since early December, offering hard numbers for an unprecedented surge that was apparent in overcrowded hospitals and packed crematoriums, even as the government released little data about the status of the pandemic for weeks. Those numbers may still underestimate the toll, though the government said the “emergency peak" of its latest surge appears to have passed. The toll included 5,503 deaths due to respiratory failure caused by COVID-19 and 54,435 fatalities from other ailments combined with COVID-19 since Dec. 8, the National Health Commission announced. It said those “deaths related to COVID” occurred in hospitals, which means anyone who died at home would not be included in the numbers. The report would more than double China’s official COVID-19 death toll to 10,775 since the disease was first detected in the central city of Wuhan in late 2019. China has counted only deaths from pneumonia or respiratory failure in its official COVID-19 death toll, a narrow definition that excludes many deaths that would be attributed to COVID-19 in much of the world. China stopped reporting data on COVID-19 deaths and infections after abruptly lifting anti-virus controls in early December despite a surge in infections that began in October and has filled hospitals with feverish, wheezing patients. Hospitals in Beijing across the country have been overwhelmed with patients, and funeral homes and crematoriums have struggled to handle the dead. Read more: Bangladesh sees 10 more Covid cases, zero death The World Health Organization and other governments appealed for information after reports by city and provincial governments suggested as many as hundreds of millions of people in China might have contracted the virus. Infection numbers now appear to be falling based on a decline in the number of patients visiting fever clinics, said a National Health Commission official, Jiao Yahui. The daily number of people going to those clinics peaked at 2.9 million on Dec. 23 and had fallen by 83% to to 477,000 on Thursday, according to Jiao. “These data show the national emergency peak has passed,” Jiao said at a news conference. Whether China truly has passed a COVID-19 peak is hard to assess, said Dr. Dale Bratzler, chief COVID officer at the University of Oklahoma and head of quality control at the university’s hospital. “That’s difficult to know,” Bratzler said. “China quarantined people indoors, there are many people unvaccinated, the people are vulnerable.” Dr. Albert Ko, an infectious disease physician and professor of public health at the Yale School of Public Health, said the number of COVID-19 deaths China is reporting may be a “significant underestimation” because of how they define them. “They’re using a very narrow case definition for (COVID) deaths,” Ko said. “They have to have respiratory failure ... in order to be counted as a case you have to be at a place where they can say you fulfilled all the requirements, and that’s at a hospital.” Hospitals in China, Ko said, are located mostly in large cities where COVID outbreaks have been reported, not in isolated rural areas. “This is the Lunar New Year, people are traveling, going to the countryside where the population is vulnerable,” Ko said. “We’re really worried about what’s going to happen in China as this outbreak moves to the countryside.” Read more: China halts visas for Japan, South Korea in COVID-19 spat For nearly three years, China had kept its infection rate and deaths far lower than those of the United States and some other countries at the height of the pandemic with a “zero-COVID” strategy that aimed to isolate every case. That shut down access to some cities, kept millions of people at home and sparked angry protests. Those rules were suddenly eased in early December after some of the largest shows of public dissent against the ruling Communist Party in more than 30 years. That set off new problems in a country that relies on domestically developed vaccines that are less reliable than others used globally, and where older people — those more susceptible to dying from the virus — are less likely to be vaccinated than the general population. The Health Commission said the average age of people who died since Dec. 8 is 80.3 years, and 90.1% are aged 65 and above. It said more than 90% of people who died had cancer, heart or lung diseases or kidney problems. “The number of elderly patients dying from illness is relatively large, which suggests that we should pay more attention to elderly patients and try our best to save their lives,” said Jiao. The United States, South Korea, Japan and several other countries have imposed virus testing and other controls on people arriving from China. Beijing retaliated on Wednesday by suspending issuance of new visas to travelers from South Korea and Japan. This month, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said agency officials met with Chinese officials to underline the importance of sharing more details about COVID-19 issues, including hospitalization rates and genetic sequences.

A total of 10,858 people were killed and 12,875 others injured in 7,617 road, railway and waterway accidents across the country in 2022, said Bangladesh Jatri Kalyan Samity, a passengers’ welfare platform, on Monday. Of them, 6,749 road accidents left 9,951 people dead and 12,356 others injured which are the highest figures in the last eight years. Md Mozammel Haque Chowdhury, general secretary of the platform,  presented their new report at a press conference in the capital. Read more: Mother, daughter among 3 killed in Faridpur road crash Deaths in road crashes saw a rise by 27.43 percent in 2022 than that of 2021, it said. In the just-concluded year, 550 people were killed and 201 others injured in 606 railway accidents while 262 accidents on waterways claimed lives of 357 people, and left 318 others injured and 743 more missing. The report shows that 52.02 percent of the total accidents last year were on regional highways, 27.70 percent on national highways and 11.88 percent on feeder roads. Besides, 5.67 percent of the total accidents in the country occurred in the capital, 1.71 percent in Chattogram city and 0.99 percent in rail crossings. Read more: Road crashes claim 5 lives in 3 dists Common causes of road accidents Reckless driving, risky overtaking, dilapidated roads, unfit vehicles, unskilled drivers, using mobile phones or headphones while driving and lack of awareness among road users were cited as main reasons behind road crashes. The platform alleged that the number of road accidents and deaths is increasing due to irregularities, corruption and lack of accountability of the agencies responsible for ensuring road safety. It also stressed the need for modernisation of the traffic system, ensuring fitness of vehicles to keep pace with the developed world. Read More: Cinematographer Zahid Hossain killed in road accident

With three more deaths reported from dengue in 24 hours till Tuesday morning, the official death toll from the mosquito-borne disease rose to 281 this year. This is the highest ever dengue fatalities recorded in a single year in Bangladesh. The previous record of 179 deaths were reported in 2019. Read more: Bangladesh reports 49 more dengue cases During this period, 62 more patients, including 35 in Dhaka city, were hospitalised, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS). A total of 395 dengue patients, including 203 in the capital, are now receiving treatment at hospitals across the country. Read more: Dengue: Another death, 108 cases reported in 24 hrs The DGHS has recorded 62,189 dengue cases and 61,513 recoveries so far this year.

At least 31 people died and 20 others were hospitalized in serious condition after allegedly drinking tainted liquor sold without authorization in eastern India, a top elected official said Thursday. The deaths occurred Tuesday and Wednesday and the victims belonged to three villages in Saran district of Bihar state where the manufacturing, sale and consumption of liquor are prohibited. The deaths were reported in a district government-run hospital where the sick were brought by their families for treatment, said Dr. S.D. Sinha, the hospital chief. Sale and consumption of liquor were prohibited in Bihar state in 2016 after women's groups campaigned against poor workers splurging their meager incomes on drinking. Police officer Santosh Kumar said several of the 20 hospitalized have lost their eyesight. Several opposition parties, including the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, held protests Thursday outside the state legislature building to demand the state's liquor ban be scrapped and some monetary compensation provided to the bereaved families. Read more: 28 people dead, 60 sick in India from drinking spiked liquor Sushil Modi, the state BJP leader, said more than 1,000 people have died after drinking tainted liquor since the ban was imposed six years ago. The BJP is in opposition in the state. Nitish Kumar, the state's top elected official belonging to the socialist party Janata Dal, rejected their demands and said the ban on the sale of liquor was “not my personal wish but a response to the cries of the women of the state.” Three people have been detained for questioning for allegedly selling spiked alcohol in the area, he said. Saran district is nearly 60 kilometers (40 miles) north of Patna, the Bihar state capital. Deaths from illegally brewed alcohol are common in India, where illicit liquor is cheap and often spiked with chemicals such as pesticides to increase potency. Illicit liquor has also become a hugely profitable industry across India, where bootleggers pay no taxes and sell enormous quantities of their product to the poor at a cheap rate. At least 28 people died and 60 others became ill from drinking tainted liquor in the western Indian state of Gujarat earlier this year. Gujarat is another Indian state where the manufacturing, sale and consumption of liquor are prohibited. Read more: 39 die, dozens sick in India from drinking spurious liquor In 2020, at least 120 people died after drinking tainted liquor in India’s northern Punjab state.