11 districts report 50pc of cases

The coronavirus pandemic has taken a serious turn in 11 districts where more than 50 per cent of country's total infections were reported, officials and physicians said on Thursday.

The districts account for more than 70 per cent of the deaths and such a dreaded statistics highlight the areas as the hotspots, they said.

With 2,423 more people were tested positive in the last 24 hours, the tally of confirmed cases rose to 57,563.

On the other hand, the death toll reached 781 with 35 more patients succumbed during the period, according to the state-run Directorate General of Health Services or DGHS.

Of the total infections, more than 30,000 were reported in the 11 districts - Dhaka (19,305), Chattogram (2,662), Narayanganj (2,333), Gazipur (1,115), Cumilla (1,038), Cox's Bazar (887), Munshiganj (818), Noakhali (726), Mymensingh (491), Rangpur (469) and Sylhet (465).

Hailing the government's recent decision on flagging up the COVID-19 zones, the experts said the government should immediately demarcate the 11 districts as red zones with strict measures to implement the effective lockdown, which proved to be a powerful arsenal against quick virus spread.

Additional director general (administration) of the DGHS Prof Dr Nasima Sultana on Thursday said that a total of 12,695 samples have been tested in 50 labs across the country since Wednesday.

Of the tests, some 2,423 samples were found COVID-19 positive along with 35 more deaths recorded across the country in the last 24 hours, she said.

With the latest numbers, the overall tally of confirmed cases and deaths rose to 57,563 and 781 respectively, she said.

The highest 21 deaths occurred in Dhaka division, nine in Chattogram, two in Sylhet and one each in Rajshahi, Barisahal and Khulna divisions, she added.

Of them, three were between 21-30, one between 31-40, three between 41-50, 14 within 51-60, 11 between 61-70, two between 71-80 and another was 81-90 years old, Dr Sultana said.

During the same period, the DGHS official said 571 Covid-19 patients have recovered, taking the total number of recoveries to 12,161 and the recovery rate to 21.13 per cent.

Convenor of the Doctors Platform for People Health Dr Rashid-e-Mahbub said the pandemic situation in the 11 hotspot districts having more than 400 infections should be a matter of serious concern for the policymakers.

Not only these high risk areas, there are seven to eight other districts, which reported over 200 cases and the number keeps mounting there, he said.

The government should immediately demarcate these risky areas and impose lockdown there strictly to prevent the highly-infectious pathogen from spreading.

Globally, over 6.6 million people have been infected by the novel coronavirus. Of them, 388,554 died until 6:30 pm, according to Worldometer info.

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