Twenty-three people died from Covid-19 in 24 hours till 8:00am yesterday, according to a press release from the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).

With this, the coronavirus death toll reached 5,861, which is 1.45 percent of all cases -- 403,079 -- confirmed in the country.

The authorities reported 1,493 new infections after conducting 12,357 tests at 111 testing centres in those 24 hours, said the release, adding that the positivity rate was 12.08 percent.

The overall positivity rate rose to 17.55 percent.

Bangladesh is now 18th in the list of worst-affected countries in the world in terms of the number of cases, according to worldometers.info.

The position is one step behind Iraq and one step ahead of Indonesia.

Meanwhile, 1,610 Covid-19 patients recovered in the same 24 hours. The total number of recovery cases stood at 319,733, which is more than 79 percent of all confirmed cases, said the press release.

Among the 23 deceased, 19 were males and four females.

Two of them died in their homes while the rest 21 in hospitals.

Three of them were aged between 31 and 40 years, two between 41 and 50, two between 51 and 60 and the rest 16 were above 60 years old.

One each of the deceased was from Rangpur and Khulna divisions while five were from Chattogram and the rest 16 were from Dhaka division.

So far, more than half (51.83 percent) of all the deceased were from Dhaka division, according to the DGHS.

The DGHS reported the first three cases in the country on March 8. The first death caused by coronavirus was reported on March 18.