Bangladesh has reported 46 more deaths due to the novel coronavirus, taking the total number of the COVID-19 fatalities in the country to 2,197, according to the health officials on Wednesday.

The total number of the COVID-19 cases in the country has surged to 172,134 with 3,489 people testing positive for the virus in the last 24 hours till 8 a.m. on Wednesday, an official from the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS)informed.

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During a press briefing, DGHS Additional Director General Nasima Sultana said that another 2,736 infected patients have recovered at home and in hospital care in the same period, taking the total to 80,838.

As many as 15,672 samples were tested at authorised labs across the country in the last 24 hours, 22.26 per cent of which returned positive results, bdnews24 reported.

According to the Health Emergency Operations control room, the country has only 12,034 beds and 339 ICU beds available in government and private hospitals for COVID-19 patients.

Last month, government spokesperson Chowdhury said Nasim, who had held the health portfolio between 2014 and 2019, was hospitalised on June 1 after having tested positive for the coronavirus. He also suffered a stroke after being admitted.

Bangladesh imposed a lockdown on March 26 to check the spread of the coronavirus.

Meanwhile, globally, over 11.83 million people have been infected by the novel coronavirus and 544,414 have died, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.