DHAKA,  – The number of COVID-19 cases in Bangladesh hit a record daily high since the outbreak of the pandemic with 8,822 new infections being reported in a span of 24 hours, pushing the nationwide coronavirus tally to 9,13,258, so far.

The death toll rose to 14,503 with 115 new fatalities, second highest number of deaths in a single day, as the virus was first detected on March 8 last year, Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) said in its routine daily statement.

The country recorded the highest 119 deaths on June 27 this year when the daily toll continued to exceed 100 for several days.

It said 25.13 percent of the 35,105 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 recovery count rose to 8,16,250 after another 4,550 patients were discharged from the hospitals during the past one day.

The DGHS statistics showed of the people infected from the beginning, 89.38 percent recovered, while 1.59 percent died.

As both fatality and infection rate of COVID-19 has increased sharply from the beginning of the current month, the government has imposed a nationwide strict lockdown that will begin from tomorrow to contain the spread of the virus.

In the past 24 hours, the combined figure of coronavirus at Dhaka city and upazilas of Dhaka district is 3,259 while the tally of infections in the country has stood at 8,822 during the same period.

The DGHS said as of June 30, 5,20,351 out of 9,13,258 were detected alone in Dhaka district including the capital.

The DGHS said among the total 14,503 fatalities, 7,579 deaths occurred in Dhaka division, 2,750 in Chattogram, 1,034 in Rajshahi, 1,265 in Khulna, 423 in Barishal, 527 in Sylhet, 608 in Rangpur and 317 in Mymensingh division.

The DGHS said Bangladesh’s COVID-19 confirmed cases crossed 5,000 mark on March 29, 2021 and 6,000 mark on April 1, 2021 while it surpassed 7,000 mark on April 4, 2021.

The country recorded 8,364 COVID-19 cases on June 28 this year, the highest daily spike since the outbreak of the pandemic, it added.

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.

After the drastic fall of COVID-19 confirmed cases, the country witnessed sharp increase of infection as 65,079 cases were reported in March, 2021 and 1,47,837 cases in April.

According to month-wise statistics last year, five COVID-19 deaths were reported in March, 2020, 163 in April, 482 in May, 1,197 in June, 1,264 in July, 1,179 in August, 970 in September, 672 in October, 721 in November and 915 in December.

Month-wise data of the current year, 568 coronavirus fatalities were recorded in January, 2021, 281 in February, 638 in March and 2,404 in April, the DGHS sources said.

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

As of June 30, 2021, 12:10 GMT, 3,955,895 people have died so far from the COVID-19 outbreak and there are currently 182,675,711 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.