Bangladesh on Wednesday reported its first death due to the novel coronavirus pandemic while four new infections were detected, taking the number of cases in the country to 14, a senior health official said.
The 70-year-old man was suffering from diabetes, kidney ailments and hypertension and had contracted the virus after meeting an overseas returnee.
"The patient had been in intensive care where he died," Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) director Meerjady Sabrina Flora told reporters.
She said the patient was highly vulnerable.
The health official also confirmed the detection of four more COVID-19 cases, taking the total tally in the country to 14.
Of the new cases, three are men and the fourth is a woman, Flora said, adding that two recently had returned from Italy, one from Kuwait while the fourth was a family member of one of the returnees.
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Flora said 10 patients were being treated in isolation in a hospital while the first three patients reported on March 8 were sent home after recovery.
The IEDCR chief said her facility had tested 341 samples and 49 people in the last 24 hours.
Administrative officials said one of the newly detected persons was kept in quarantine along with dozens of others at a facility in Gazipur on the outskirts of the capital.
Bangladesh authorities, meanwhile, ordered a travel restriction in southeastern beach town of Cox's Bazar and a ban on gatherings at another beach in southeastern port city of Chattagram, a day after closing schools and other education institutions until March 31.
The country earlier also banned entry of people from Europe and several other coronovirus-hit countries including India.
The global coronavirus pandemic also forced the country to scale down the festivity of the inauguration of the year-long birth centenary celebrations of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
The coronavirus outbreak, which first emerged in China's Wuhan city last year, has infected 198,006 people and killed 7,948, according to a tracker maintained by Johns Hopkins University.