The health authorities have confirmed 3,868 cases after testing 18,498 samples in the span of 24 hours until Friday.

Since March 18, the government said 1,661 people have died of COVID-19.

 In the last 24 hours, 40 more people died from the highly contagious disease.

Also Read - Coronavirus: Over 50,000 recover in Bangladesh, 3,946 new cases in 24 hrs

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.

In the last 24 hours, 1,638 patients recovered from the disease, taking the total number of recovered patients  in the country to 53,133.

The detection rate of new patients on Friday has been recorded at 20.91 percent. 

Against the total number of detected cases, the recovery rate is 40.72 percent and the mortality rate is 1.27 percent in the country.

Among the deceased, 31 were male and nine were female. “Their age-based analysis says, one was aged below 10 years, three were aged between 31 and 40 years, six between 41 and 50, 12 between 51 and 60, 14 between 61 and 70, three between 71 and 80, and one more patient was aged between 81 and 90 years,” Dr Nasima said.

Fourteen patients died in Dhaka division, 12 in Chattogram division, four in Khulna division, four in Barishal division, three in Sylhet division, and three more patients died in Rangpur division.

“Thirty one people died at  hospitals across the country while nine others at homes,” she added.

Dr Nasima assured that sufficient beds are ready for Covid-19 patients.

“Within Dhaka city, there are 16 hospitals dedicated to COVID-19 patients while outside of Dhaka district there is one. In total there are 6773 general beds and 180 ICU beds,” Dr Nasima said. 

At present, 2,375 patients are admitted to general beds and 97 in ICU beds.

“In all the divisions combined there are 14,610 general beds for coronavirus patients and 379 ICU beds. In those hospitals, 4,691 patients are admitted to general beds and 183 are in ICU beds,” she added.