Five more people died of COVID-19 and 41 more contracted the disease in the past 24 hours till 8:00am Tuesday.

The Directorate General of Health Services informed this in an online news bulletin.

With this, the number of infected patients rose to 164 and the number of deaths rose to 17.

Bangladesh on March 8 confirmed the first infection with COVID-19 and the first death on March 18.

Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research director Meerjady Sabrina Flora said that among the infected new patients, 20 are from the capital, 15 in Narayanganj, one in Cumilla, one in Chattogram and one in Keraniganj of Dhaka.

Two from the capital are among five people died on the day.

Meerjady said 28 of the new infected 41 patients are males and 13 are females.

One of them is below 10 years old, four are in 11 to 20 years, 10 are in 21 to 30, five are in between 31 and 40, nine are between 41 and 50, seven are between 51 and 60, and five are above 60 years old.

DGHS director general Abul Kalam Azad said that they had collected 792 samples in the past 24 hours, but he did not tell about the number of tests during the period.

DGHS did not take any questions from journalists.

Azad requested people to follow COVID-19 health practice.

‘Your protection is at your hands. Stay at home, maintain distance, and wear masks if you need to go out for an emergency, he added.