The Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) has confirmed that one more person has died of coronavirus (Covid-19) infection in Bangladesh, taking the number of deaths from the disease in the country to five.

“However, no new case of infection has been recorded in the country in last 24 hours,” said IEDCR Director Dr Meerjady Sabrina Flora while addressing an online media briefing on Wednesday (Mar 25).

Earlier on Tuesday (Mar 24), the government suspended domestic flights, public road transport, launch vessels, and trains amid the growing coronavirus pandemic.

On Monday (Mar 23), Bangladesh government declared a 10-day shutdown, effective from Mar 26 to Apr 4, to battle the spread of the coronavirus.

Both the private and public sectors, except emergency services, would come to a temporary halt.

Educational institutions will stay closed during this period but banks will remain open to facilitate the financial transaction for their clients.

At the same time, Bangladesh’s armed forces were deployed to assist the administration in every divisional and district town to ensure that people maintain social distance and are taking precautionary measures to prevent the novel coronavirus from spreading further.

Covid-19, a new strain of coronavirus, which was first reported in China’s Wuhan has killed at least 16,558 people across the world and infected 381,649 till date.

At least 102,429 people have recovered from the virus which has spread to 195 countries.