Bangladesh on Friday recorded 34 more COVID-19 deaths and identified 2,766 new cases amid the fluctuation of infection rates.

The rate of infection was 21.52 per cent in the 24 hours ending at 8:00am Friday, up by 1.64 per cent compared to the previous 24 hours, according to the Directorate General of Health Services.

The DGHS in its Friday release said that 2,766 new cases were detected after 12,856 samples were tested across the country in the past 24-hour reporting period.

Besides, 34 more COVID-19 patients died, including one at home, during the time.

With these figures, Bangladesh tallied 2,71,881 coronavirus cases with 3,591 deaths.

Bangladesh registered its first three COVID-19 cases on March 8 and the first death from the infection on March 18.

The country is now in the 23rd week after coronavirus infection broke out here.

The rate of infection in the current week is 21.17 per cent while the overall rate of infection is 20.46 per cent, making Bangladesh one of the 10 countries with the highest rates of infection.

The 22nd week saw the highest infection rate of 23.84 per cent while it was 22.21 per cent in the 21st week and 22.81 per cent in the 19th week.

Despite the high rate of infections, health minister Zahid Maleque on Thursday said that the country’s coronavirus situation had improved and that the government was now planning to reduce the number of COVID-19 hospitals.

The DGHS said that among the 34 new deaths, 18 died in Dhaka division, four died each in Rajshahi and Sylhet, two died each in Chattogram, Rangpur and Mymensingh and one died in Khulna division.

Of them, 28 were male and six female.

Twenty-two of the dead were aged above 60 years, six between 51 and 60 years, four between 41 and 50 years and two were between 31 and 40 years.

On Friday, 4,576 COVID-19 patients were taking treatment at hospitals, including 314 in ICUs while 1,07,091 were under treatment at home.

Although the Covid-19 hospitals were lying vacant, patients were preferring to stay at home.

Since May 17, at least 577 coronavirus patients have died at home and 31 on the way to hospital, according to the compiled data of the DGHS.

According to the DGHS, 1,56,623 COVID-19 patients have recovered so far, including 1,752 in the past 24 hours.