Bangladesh reports 978 virus cases, 17 deaths in a day

Bangladesh has recorded 978 new cases of the novel coronavirus in a daily count, taking the tally of infections so far to 518,898.

The death toll climbed to 7,687 after 17 fatalities were registered in the 24 hours to 8 am Wednesday, according to data released by the government.

The number of fresh recoveries outpaced active cases in the same period as another 1,021 patients recovered from the illness through treatment at home and in hospital care, bringing the total to 463,480.

As many as 15,544 samples were tested at 181 authorised labs across the country in the last 24 hours, yielding a positivity rate of 6.29 percent.

The latest official figures put the recovery rate at 89.32 percent while the mortality rate stands at 1.48 percent.

Globally, over 86.46 million people have been infected by the novel coronavirus and 1.86 million have died, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

Infections have been reported in more than 210 countries and territories since the first cases were identified in China in December 2019.