COVID-19 death toll crosses 20,000 in Bangladesh

Bangladesh has logged 16,230 new cases of COVID-19, a new daily record, taking the total caseload to 1,210,982.

Another 237 people died from the disease in the 24 hours to 8:00 am on Wednesday taking the death toll to 20,016, according to the latest government data, reports bdnews24.com.

Dhaka registered the most daily deaths and new cases among the eight divisions, logging 70 fatalities and 8,271 infections. Chattogram tallied 62 deaths and 3,303 cases, Khulna 34 deaths and 866 cases, and Rajshahi 21 deaths and 917 cases.

Nationwide, another 13,470 people recovered from the illness, bringing the total number of recoveries to 1,035,884.

As many as 53,877 samples were tested across the country, for a positivity rate of 30.12 per cent. The latest figures put the recovery rate at 85.54 per cent and the mortality rate at 1.65 per cent.

Globally, over 195.41 million people have been infected by the novel coronavirus and 4.17 million have died, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

Infections have been reported in more than 210 countries and territories since the first cases were identified in China in December 2019.