Covid-19: 90,000 cases in 100 days

With over three thousand new infections in a single day, the total number of Covid-19 cases crossed the 90,000-mark yesterday -- the 100th day since the outbreak began in the country.

The first coronavirus case in the country was detected on March 8, and from late May onwards, the number of daily cases began to rise drastically.

Data shows that over the last 15 days, 45,741 people were infected following the lifting of the temporary shutdown by the authorities.

The government is now planning to introduce a "zoning system" across the country, in which areas will be marked red, yellow and green according to the rate of infections. The higher the infection rate, the warmer the colour.

At the daily briefing yesterday, Dr Nasima Sultana, additional director general (administration) of the Directorate General of Health Services, said 3,099 people tested positive for Covid-19 in 24 hours till yesterday afternoon, taking the total to 90,619.

During this period, 38 people died from the disease, and the death toll now stands at 1,209.

A total of 15,038 samples were tested in 58 labs across the country in those 24 hours, Dr Nasima said, adding that 34,027 infected people recovered from Covid-19 so far.

Till Sunday, the number of recoveries was 18,730.

Regarding the jump in recovery, she explained there were people who recovered from the infection at home. They have added the number of those people after getting information from the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR).

According to the IEDCR, about 71 percent of those infected are male and the rest are female.

Younger people seem to make up the majority of those infected, as 54.7 percent of detected patients are aged between 21 and 40.

The death rate is also higher among men. Of the total reported deaths, 77 percent were male.

The IEDCR shows that 68.6 percent of the people who died from Covid-19 were aged over 50.

Eighteen of the dead were from Dhaka, 12 from Chattogram, six from Sylhet, one from Barishal and another was from Rangpur division.

Of them, three were aged between 21 and 30, three between 31 and 40, seven between 41 and 50, five between 51 and 60, 15 between 61 and 70 and the rest were between 71 and 80, the DGHS official said.

A total of 536 people were put under isolation in the 24 hours till yesterday afternoon, she added.

Dr Nasima requested people to maintain social distance and health safety to avert the risk of infection.

"Many people are dying...Health workers are getting infected and dying. So be careful to avert further loss," she said, urging people to wear masks always outside of home.