586 Bangladeshis die of coronavirus in 17 countries

As many as 586 Bangladeshis have died of COVID-19 so far in 17 countries.

The toll is more than double the toll in Bangladesh that reports 239 fatalities till 11 May.

Bangladesh reported its first COVID-19 death on 18 March. On the same day, the first expatriate death from coronavirus was reported too from New York.

Bangladesh embassies in the concerned countries, websites of the countries’ health ministries as well as immigrants, corroborate the statistics.

Among the 586, the highest number of deaths has been 250 in the US, followed by 200 in UK, 76 in Saudi Arabia, 17 in Kuwait, 8 in Italy, 7 in Canada, 6 in United Arab Emirates, 5 each in France and Spain, 4 in Qatar, 2 in Sweden, and 1 each in Maldives, Portugal, Kenya, Libya, South Africa, Gambia.

Many of the expats had already received citizenship or were undergoing the immigration process in those countries.

Though the highest number of Bangladeshis died in the US and UK, none of the countries provided any statistics regarding total cases.

Officially, the number of infected is the highest in Singapore. According to the website of the country’s health ministry, 23,822 were infected till Monday. Concerned diplomatic sources say half of the Singapore coronavirus cases are Bangladeshis which means around 12,000 Bangladeshis have been infected.

Saudi Arabia follows Singapore with a rising number of COVID-19 cases among Bangladeshis. The number passed 7,000, Bangladesh embassy followed several sources to estimate. However, on 2 May, Saudi Arabia reported the number was 3,700.

Another 3,000 Bangladeshis tested COVID-19 positive in Qatar while the number is 800 in Kuwait, 200 in Italy, 150 in Spain and 100 in the United Arab Emirates.

With this, the number of total infected Bangladeshis abroad, outside of the UK and the US, has crossed 25,000.