DHAKA, – Bangladesh today recorded 78 novel coronavirus (COVID-19) deaths, the highest number in a single day since its first detection on March 8 last year while 5,819 fresh cases were reported during the period.

“The tally of infections has surged to 6,84,756 as 5,819 new cases were confirmed in the last 24 hours,” Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) said in its routine daily statement.

A total of 78 COVID-19 patients died in the last 24 hours increasing the death toll from the pandemic to 9,739.

It said 19.81 percent of the 29,376 samples collected in 24 hours were tested positive while the infection rate was only 2.30 percent just on February 8 this year as during the late winter season, the rate started decreasing sharply.

The samples were tested at 248 authorized medical laboratories across the country during the time as the government put in efforts to increase the number of testing centers gradually with resurgence of the pandemic.

The recovery count rose to 5,76,590 after another 4,212 patients were discharged from the hospitals during the past one day.

The DGHS statistics showed of the people infected from the beginning, 84.20 percent recovered, while 1.42 percent died.

It said 47 out of the 78 died in Dhaka division alone and 53 of them were male while 25 were women and added one is 10 years, six in their 30s, seven in their 40s, 16 in their 50s while 48 are above 60 years.

Bangladesh recorded the highest number of COVID-19 fatality on June 30 last year when the virus killed 64 people in a day.

DGHS said the country logged over 5,000 COVID-19 cases for the three consecutive days as 5,181 cases were recorded on March 29, 5,082 on March 30 and 5,358 on March 31 while it 6,469 cases were recorded on April 1, 6,830 on April 2, 5683 on April 3, 7087 on April 4, 7,075 on April 5, 7,213 April 6, 7,626 on April 7, 6,8 54 on April 8 and 7,462 on April 9, 5,343 on April 10 and 5,819 on April.

According to month-wise statistics last year, 51 COVID-19 positive cases were detected in March 2020, 7616 in April, 39,486 in May, 98,330 in June, 92,178 in July, 75,335 in August, 50,483 in September, 44, 205 in October, 57,248 in November and 48,578 in December.

The beginning of the current year witnessed a drastic fall of coronavirus cases in the country but the trend lasted for only two months — 21,629 cases were detected in January and 11,077 in February.

The month of entire march witnessed sharp increase of infection when the virus infected 65,079 people.

The DGHS said among the total 9,739 fatalities, 5,622 deaths occurred in Dhaka division, 1,754 in Chattogram, 529 in Rajshahi, 613 in Khulna, 289 in Barishal, 338 in Sylhet, 386 in Rangpur and 208 in Mymensingh division.

The DGHS said in order to make treatment facilities easily available for the COVID-19 patients, the government has introduced telemedicine services comprising 100 physicians for round the clock in the country.

It added that 2,71,19,467 people received healthcare services from hotline mobile numbers and health web portals as the government formed a group of medical professionals to provide emergency healthcare services.

To receive information and treatment facilities on COVID-19, the contact hotline and mobile numbers are 16263; 333; 10655 and 01944333222.

As of April 11, 2021, 12:01 GMT, 2,941,268 people have died so far from the COVID-19 outbreak and there are currently 136,130,056 confirmed cases in 212 countries and territories, according to Worldometer, a reference website that provides counters and real-time statistics for diverse topics.

China was the world’s first country which on January 11, 2020 reported the first death from the novel coronavirus in Wuhan, the capital of Central China’s Hubei province.