Publish Gazette Declaring Coronavirus an Epidemic within Today: HC

The High Court directed the government to publish, within today's period, a gazette notice declaring coronavirus to be an outbreak.

The HC bench released the order after receiving a writ petition in this respect on Wednesday.

The court also asked the government to notify it of the measures it has taken so far to tackle coronavirus spread if the gazette was not published.

Earlier, the old man was confirmed to be the first coronavirus death in Bangladesh on Wednesday.

The patient was over 70 years old.

Prof. Dr Meerjady Sabrina Flora, Director of Epidemiology, Injury Control and Research (IEDCR) today released the details at a press conference.

She said four more men, including one female and three male, were diagnosed with coronavirus infection in the region, making a total of 14 coronavirus-infected patients in the country.

Another of them is a family member of a corona-infected individual, two from Italy and another from Kuwait.

On 8 March, the IEDCR reported for the first time the discovery of three Covid-19 patients in Bangladesh.

Of them, two were Italy-returnees while the third one was the wife of one of them. However, all of them have already recovered from the disease.

On March 14, Health Minister Zahid Maleque said two more coronavirus cases were detected in the country.

On Monday, the IEDCR announced the detection of three more patients from the same family while two more on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the death toll from the coronavirus or COVID-19 has reached 7,987 globally as of Wednesday.

It has so far infected 198,426 people around the world, according to worldometer.

Of them, 107,676 are currently being treated with 6,415 being in serious or critical condition.

So far, 90,750 cases had outcomes and of them, 82,763 (91 percent) recovered and 9 percent died.

COVID-19 impacts 162 nations and territories across the globe and one foreign carrier (Diamond Princess cruise ship arrived in Yokohama, Japan).

The World Health Organization called the outbreak with coronavirus a pandemic on 11 March.