26 Bangladeshis in Singapore test COVID-19 positive in one day

Migrant workers mostly from Bangladesh on their day off in Singapore on 23 February 2020.Reuters file photo

A total of 26 Bangladeshis tested positive for COVID-19 in Singapore just in one day on Saturday. With this, the number of Bangladeshis infected by the virus rose to 74 in the country.

Bangladesh high commissioner in Singapore, Md Mostafizur Rahman, confirmed this to Prothom Alo on Sunday.

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The number of coronavirus infected Bangladeshis has been increasing in Singapore since last week, according to the website of Singapore’s health ministry.

As per the Bangladesh high commissions and expatriates, over 450 Bangladeshis in seven countries including Italy, Spain and Singapore have been identified as coronavirus-infected.

More than 200 Bangladeshis are infected in the US while the number is 75 in Italy’s Milan.

Besides, 70 Bangladeshis have contracted the virus in Spain and the number is 20 in Canada and France each, and 10 in Germany.

Two dormitories in Singapore have been closed as the infection was reportedly being spreading from there, Mostafizur said adding that the Singapore government arranged for the treatment of the patients. He said none of the infected was in critical condition.

Most of the infected are in quarantine while a few are hospitalised, he added.

The first Bangladeshi in Singapore who contracted the highly contagious virus in February has recovered the infection, but has been kept in intensive care unit (ICU) due to other physical complications.

So far, 99 coronavirus infected Bangladeshis have died abroad. Among them six have died over last 24 hours including three in the US, and one in the UK, Canada and United Arab Emirates each.

Among the dead, 65 died in the US, 20 in the UK, three in Italy and Saudi Arabia each, two in Qatar, and one in Canada, Spain, Sweden, United Arab Emirates, Libya and Gambia each.