Bangladesh has registered 25 new fatalities from the novel coronavirus in a daily count, taking the death toll so far to 7,217. The caseload climbed to 498,293 after 1,318 people tested positive for COVID-19 in the 24 hours to 8 am Friday, reports bdnews24.com citing a statement released by the government. As many as 14,336 samples were tested at 159 authorised labs in the last 24 hours, yielding a positivity rate of 9.19 per cent. Globally, over 74.98 million people have been infected by the novel coronavirus and 1.66 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.

Source: bd News24 December 18, 2020 10:50 UTC