Shawdesh desk:

Bangladesh on Wednesday recorded the highest single-day infection of 4,008 persons taking the tally to 98,489.

The country recorded 43 deaths from the virus in the last 24 hours, the total death toll touches 1,305.

Additional Director General of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) Prof Dr Nasima Sultana came up with the disclosure at its daily health bulletin on Wednesday.

In the last 24 hours, 61 coronavirus testing laboratories across the country tested 17,527 samples, she added.

The detection rate of new patients on Tuesday has been recorded at 22.37 percent.

Across the country 1,925 more patients made recovery, she said adding that so far 38,189 people have recovered from the disease.

Bangladesh confirmed its first cases on March 8 and the first death on March 18 but it has been seeing a sharp rise in both new cases and deaths in recent weeks.

In an effort to prevent transmission of coronavirus and improve the situation, the government has issued some directives imposing restrictions on the movement of people.

The Cabinet Division issued the directives on Monday which will remain in force until June 30. Weekly holidays will be included in the directives.

According to the directives, all government offices, non-government, autonomous, private offices and their employees and staffers under ‘red’ zone will be under general holidays and the Public Administration Ministry will take necessary measures in this regard.

The life and livelihood, movement of people in red, yellow and green zones under Bangladesh Risk Zone-Based Covid-19 Containments implementation Strategy guide, provided by Health authorities will be strictly controlled.

No one will be allowed to go out of his/her home from 8pm till 6am without emergency work (emergency purchasing, work place, medicine purchasing, treatment, and burial process).

People will have to maintain health issues when going out for emergency work or they would face legal action.

All have to abide by the directives provided by the Health Department during this period.

Global Situation

As the global coronavirus situation continues to worsen the death toll from the virus infection stood at 441,439 as of Wednesday morning, according to the Centre for System Science and Engineering of Johns Hopkins University.

Besides, the number of confirmed Covid-19 cases has gone up to 8,152, 885.

According to JHU data, Brazil and Russia have come up to the second and the third positions after the US with 923,189 and 544,725 confirmed coronavirus cases as of Wednesday.

Meanwhile, South Asian country India has come up to the fourth position after Russia with 343,091 confirmed Covid-19 cases. The country has so far reported 9,900 deaths.

On the other hand, Brazil counted the second highest deaths after the US as it reported 45,241 deaths from the virus till the date.

Among the countries, the US has been the worst-hit with the highest recorded deaths of 116,917 patients and about 2,136,043 confirmed cases.

In the US, New York State alone counted 30,909 deaths till the date.

The UK has the third-highest death toll at 42,054, followed by Italy with 34,405, France 29,550 and Spain 27,136, according to Johns Hopkins University.

Coronavirus cases were first reported in China in December last year.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) declared the coronavirus crisis a pandemic on March 11.