Dhaka: The country yesterday recorded 503 confirmed cases of COVID-19 -- the highest in a single day since the first case was reported more than a month and a half ago -- with four deaths due to the disease.

The total number of infected patients rose to 4,689 while the death toll reached 131, said Prof Nasima Sultana, additional director general (administration) of Directorate General of Health Services, during a briefing.

Dhaka remains the worst affected region with 437 infected patients -- which is 86 percent of the total Covid-positive cases found in the last 24 hours until 2:30pm yesterday.

In the previous four days, the numbers of daily cases were stagnant below the 500 mark with the hitherto highest 492 cases recorded on Monday.

On April 9, the number of daily cases was 112 while it was 219 on April 14 and 306 on April 18.

Meanwhile, four more COVID-19 patients have recovered, taking the total number of recoveries to 112, Nasima also said.

A total of 3,686 samples were tested in 21 PCR labs across the country in the last 24 hours until yesterday, which is 7.9 percent higher than the previous day, she added.

So far total 39,776 samples have been tested.

All of the four deceased were male and aged between 52 and 60, the DGHS official said, adding that all of them were from Dhakadivision.

A total of 123 were put under isolation around the country since yesterday, she also said.

As of yesterday, a total of 6,513 people have been kept under institutional quarantine.

Meanwhile, experts have pointed out that the concentration of coronavirus tests in Dhaka may leave a significant number of Covid-positive patients undetected across the country.

According to DGHS data, 10 laboratories for testing COVID-19 in Dhaka have so far tested the majority of the samples, resulting in a higher number of positive cases detected in the capital and 14 other districts in Dhaka division.

As of yesterday, samples of 39,776 individuals were tested across the country.

Of them, ten labs in Dhaka city conducted more than 69 percent tests while 11 labs in divisional cities and other districts across the country tested the rest of the samples.

Talking to The Daily Star recently, Prof Nazrul Islam, member of the national technical advisory committee on COVID-19, said, "As tests are concentrated in Dhaka compared to other regions, we are getting a high number of new cases here [Dhaka division]. With a few tests, we cannot measure the reality."

Prof Ridwanur Rahman, a specialist of medicine and infectious disease, said since our population density is higher, more cases would have been detected if more tests had been conducted.

Both the experts recommended that the daily number of tests be increased to 10,000 to understand the extent of the coronavirus situation.

https://www.thedailystar.net/frontpage/news/big-jump-new-COVID-19-cases-1896559