Bangladesh reported 50 coronavirus deaths in 24 hours until Tuesday morning.

“During this period, 1918 new cases were detected after testing 7712 samples,” Prof Dr Nasima Sultana, Additional Director General of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), said at a regular online briefing, UNB reports.

The country reported its first cases on March 8 and the first death on March 18.

Currently, the number of officially confirmed cases stands at 2,44,020.

Meanwhile, 1955 patients recovered in the last 24 hours, raising the total number of recovered cases to 1,31,860.

Coronavirus cases were first reported in China in December last year. In March, the World Health Organization declared it a pandemic.

‘No silver bullet’

The number of officially confirmed coronavirus cases has shot past 18 million, according to the Johns Hopkins University.

The total number of cases stood at 18,109,901 and the fatalities rose to 690,055 as of Monday evening, data compiled by JHU’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) showed.

Besides, 1,468,689 people recovered from virus infection globally.

On Monday, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned that there is no ‘silver bullet’ for a vaccine against Covid-19. “There might never be,” he told a regular press briefing in Geneva.

He said a number of vaccines are now in phase 3 clinical trials, and we all hope to have a number of effective vaccines that can help prevent people from infection.

“The message to people and governments is clear: do it all,” he said, “and when it’s under control, keep going!”

Tedros urged all nations to strictly enforce health measures such as mask-wearing, social distancing, hand-washing and testing.

“For now, stopping outbreaks comes down to the basics of public health and disease control. Testing, isolating and treating patients, and tracing and quarantining their contacts. Do it all,” he said.

“Inform, empower and listen to communities. Do it all.”