Virus casts shadow on Eid as cases surge by daily record; deaths top 500

The COVID-19 outbreak has put a further damper on muted Eid-ur-Fitr celebrations in Bangladesh after another 1,975 people tested positive for the infection, the most for a single day, taking the official caseload to 35,585..

The body count from the coronavirus jumped to 501 on the back of 21 new fatalities in the 24 hours to 8am Monday, according to the health directorate.

Another 433 COVID-19 patients were discharged from hospitals in the same period, raising the total to 7,334, DGHS Additional Director General Nasima Sultana said in a media briefing on Monday.

A total of 9,451 samples were tested at 48 authorised labs across the country during that time, with Dhaka's Labaid Hospital the latest to join the fold, she said. The health directorate employees, including doctors and other health workers continued to work on Eid day.

Globally, over 5.41 million people have been infected by the novel coronavirus and 345,122 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.

Among the latest fatalities, 16 were men and five women while 11 of them were from Dhaka Division, nine from Chattogram Division and the other from Rangpur Division.

Two of them were more than 80 years old, as many were between 71 and 80, four of them between 61 and 70, nine between 51 and 60, three between 41 and 50 while the other was aged between 11 and 20 years.

The total number of people isolated surged to 4,653 as 284 more were moved into isolations in this period.