All private hospitals and clinics should have separate arrangements for treating suspected Covid-19 patients, and they cannot refuse any patient if they have the particular treatment facilities, said a health ministry circular.

The country’s death toll due to coronavirus reached 250 with 11 deaths recorded yesterday.

Over one lakh Bangladeshis in different Middle Eastern countries are suffering acute hunger while many other Bangladeshis have become unemployed amid the shutdown of economies across the world.

Tragedy struck a family early yesterday in Narayanganj when a man’s death from fever, cough and respiratory problems -- allegedly after hospitals in Dhaka denied him admission -- was followed swiftly by his grieving father’s demise from cardiac arrest.

The government has extended Food-Friendly Programme for one more month, while the OMS programme for around 13 lakh listed people in urban and semi-urban areas will continue to help the low-income people hit hard by the shutdown.

With more and more garment factories reopening every day, the deadly coronavirus appears to be spreading among workers in the industrial belts in Ashulia, Gazipur, Narayanganj and Chattogram.

Four retired and two serving members of the army died of Covid-19 as of yesterday, said a press release of the Inter Services Public Relations Directorate.

Despite protective measures taken by authorities, the number of infection in the police force has been on a rapid rise with around one hundred officials across the country testing positive for Covid-19 daily over the last one week.

The country reported a record single-day surge of detected coronavirus cases -- 1,034 -- as the tally crossed the 15,000 mark, while 11 new deaths took the death toll to 239.

The Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU) will begin the performance trial of home-grown Covid-19 testing kit developed by Gonoshasthaya Kendra today.

Health workers and police personnel who come in close contact with unidentified dead bodies for conducting autopsies and enquiries are at a high risk of Covid-19 infection.

When there was no effective drug to treat Covid-19 patients in the country, anti-viral generic drug Remdesivir, brought by Eskayef Pharmaceuticals Ltd, offers a ray of hope, Dr ABM Abdullah, personal physician of the prime minister, said at a discussion yesterday.

Around 14,500 tonnes of hazardous plastic waste have been produced from the single use surgical face masks, gloves, hand sanitisers bottles, and polythene bags in the first month of the shutdown, says a study report.

On the first day of the reopening of some markets in the capital yesterday amid the Covid-19 outbreak, many shoppers and store staffers were found to have flouted the directives of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, laying people’s health safety on the line.

The Covid-19 outbreak in the country turned grimmer yesterday as health authorities reported a new record of coronavirus infection and a spike in fatalities.

Mentioning that people are suffering a lot due to the shutdown, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday said the government was trying to reopen some sectors gradually so that the poor could earn their livelihoods.

Time is of the utmost essence in emergency care. But in this pandemic, as hospitals take on the challenge of a rising number of patients, emergency care is denied to many, resulting in fatal consequences.

A government-appointed committee has said the Covid-19 outbreak may peak in the weeks around the Eid, but several independent experts said it is too early to make such a prediction.

Leading pharmaceuticals company Eskayef yesterday submitted samples of remdesivir, the drug used for treating Covid-19 patients, to the deputy chief of the Directorate General of Drug Administration (DGDA).

The prisons authorities are releasing another 2,329 convicted prisoners from jails in third phase to ease the accommodation crisis and minimise the risk of novel coronavirus transmission in overcrowded prisons.