Bangladesh on Tuesday confirmed 45 more deaths and 3,171 more infections from COVID-19 in the last 24 hours.

The latest official figures took the total number of deaths caused by the novel coronavirus to 975 and the total number of people infected with the disease to 71,675.

In the last 24 hours, 14,664 samples were examined and out of them 3,171 got positive results for the virus, said Professor Dr Nasima Sultana, Additional Director General of Health Directorate at a press briefing held online.

The number of people recovered from the new disease so far since its emergence on March 8 reached 15,336 with 777 recoveries in the last 24 hours.

The new coronavirus pandemic first emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December last year.

The World Health Organisation declared the coronavirus crisis a pandemic on March 11.

The deadly virus spread to 213 countries and territories, killing some 409,033 people globally, according to Worldometer, a website which compiles number of new coronavirus cases and deaths from it.

As many as 7,214,471 people worldwide caught the virus. Among them, 3,551,699 people recovered from the virus, the website said.