Govt reports new eight die

Bangladesh has recorded 406 new cases of the coronavirus in a day, taking the tally of infections to 542, 674. The death toll climbed to 8,337 after eight fatalities from COVID-19 were registered in the 24 hours to 8 am Friday, according to data released by the government.

Another 536 people recovered from the illness through treatment at home and in hospital care in the same period, bringing the tally of recoveries to 490,468. As many as 14,232 samples were tested across the country in the last 24 hours, yielding a positivity rate of 2.85 percent.

The latest official figures put the recovery rate at 90.38 percent, while the mortality rate stands at 1.54 percent. Globally, over 110.34 million people have been infected by the novel coronavirus and 2.44 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.