Dhaka: The novel coronavirus has spread to 38 of the 64 districts in Bangladesh in 35 days after the first known case was reported.

Capital Dhaka is the worst hit with 313 people known to have been infected in 75 neighbourhoods until Sunday morning. Other parts of Dhaka district recorded 22 cases.

Dhaka district accounts for 54 percent of the total 621 confirmed COVID-19 patients in the country, according to the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research or IEDCR.

As much as 35 percent others are from Dhaka division, mostly from the completely locked down Narayanganj district.

Narayanganj, the industrial hub, is being considered the epicentre of the outbreak with 107 patients, including the first one reported on Mar 8, and the civil surgeon himself.

In Dhaka and Narayanganj districts, the number of known COVID-19 patients is 442 or over 71 percent of the total in the country.

“The patients reported in other districts in the past one week travelled from Dhaka or Narayanganj,” said Meerjady Sabrina Flora, director at the government’s disease control agency IEDCR, urging members of the public not to travel amid the shutdown.

The tally of infections jumped after another 139 new cases were detected in the 24 hours to 8am on Sunday.

In Dhaka division, the authorities found 523 infections, which is more than 85 percent of the total.

Chattogram division accounts for 6 percent of the COVID-19 patients, including 12 in Chattogram district, nine in Cumilla, and six each in Brahmanbaria and Chandpur.

The eight districts in Rajshahi division have yet to report coronavirus infections.

https://bdnews24.com/bangladesh/2020/04/13/coronavirus-crisis-escalates-to-38-districts-including-75-neighbourhoods-in-dhaka-city