Bangladesh reports the highest ever 96 deaths from COVID-19 on a single day on Wednesday, the first day of a nationwide blanket lockdown to check the spread of the deadly virus.
The Directorate General of Health Services also informed fresh infection of 5,185 people with the disease.
On April 12, the DGHS had reported 83 deaths from the disease.
The latest fatalities pushed up the local tally to 9,987 since the first death was reported on March 18 last year, the DGHS release said. The mortality rate stood at 1.42 per cent.
The number of daily cases fell to 5,185 from Tuesday’s 6,028. The country reported its first coronavirus cases on March 8. Since then, 703,170 cases have been confirmed.
Bangladesh saw a spike in the number of daily cases in recent days that were followed by a record single-day death count.
On Wednesday, the country registered its highest number of deaths from the virus for the fourth time in five days.
The figure was 69 on Tuesday, 83 on Monday, 78 on Sunday and 77 on Saturday.
Coronavirus claimed 568 lives in January this year, 281 in February and 638 in March.
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