Covid cases close to 2 lakh mark

As the total number of Covid-19 cases in the country is set to cross 2 lakh milestone today, record shows, it has taken only four weeks to cross the second one lakh mark.

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It took over 14 weeks since the detection of first case on March 08 to reach one lakh mark. On June 18, the total of number of coronavirus cases was 102,292.

Between June 18 and July 17, 97,065 more cases were recorded.

During yesterday's briefing Dr Nasima Sultana, additional director general (administration) of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), said the total number of case till yesterday stood at 1,99,357 with newly detected 3,034 cases in 24-hours.

Not only the cases, the death toll from the deadly infection almost doubled in the last one month.

Dr Nasima said 51 people died of coronavirus infections in 24-hour from Thursday and the death toll stood at 2,547.

On June 18, the death toll was 1,343.

Of the total dead, 2,011 were male and 536 were female. Death toll is higher among the dwellers of mega cities.

According DGHS, Dhaka has the highest number of deceased that stood at 1255, followed by Chattogram (655) and Rajshahi (131).

Over 1,900 people who died of Covid-19 infection aged over 50 years.

The total number of recoveries stands at 108,725 which means 88,085 active case right now exist in the country.

Of them, according to DGHS, a total of 4,289 people have been taking treatment at different hospitals.

Rest 73,796 patients are taking treatment at home.

Contacted over phone, Dr Nasima told the correspondent that they are giving treatment to these patients over phone.

"We're giving them telemedicine," she said.

Asked about monitoring movement of this huge population, she said they could not be able to ensure social distance in Dhaka as people violates health guidelines.

"In rural areas, civil surgeons and local administrations are successfully monitoring movement of patients and in cases they are keeping people in institutional quarantine facilities," she said.

"We're facing trouble to maintain lockdown in areas…. As you see people in Wari are not following health guidelines properly," she added.

Bangladesh remains the 17th worst affected country in the world in terms of the number of cases.