The authorities of United Hospital were sued for the deaths of five people in a fire that broke out at the Corona Isolation Unit of the hospital on May 27. Ronald Ricky Gomez, son-in-law of Vernon Anthony Paul -- one of the victims of the fire -- filed the case with Gulshan Police Station, said SM Kamruzzaman, officer-in-charge of the police station.

Managing committee members, doctors and nurses concerned of United Hospital have been made accused in the case, alleged to have been negligent. The patients, aged between 45 and 75, were admitted to the hospital with Covid-19 like symptoms and were being treated at the isolation ward that was built, without proper certification of the authorities apparently, as an extension of the main hospital building. The hospital authorities in an early statement speculated that the fire originated from a short circuit and spread immediately as it was windy outside due to bad weather.

An impressive 82.9 percent of the candidates passed this year's Secondary School Certificate (SSC) and equivalent examinations with 1,35,898 students achieving GPA-5 across the country.

The pass rate under the general education boards was 83.75 percent, madrasa was 82.5 percent and vocational was 72.7 percent.

According to the nine general education boards, 1,631,308 students sat for the SSC examination this year compared to 1,694,652 in 2019. Of them, 1,366,218 cleared the examination - a pass rate of 83.75 percent this time compared to 82.8 percent last year.

Division-wise, Rajshahi recorded the highest pass rate once again - 90.37 percent. Cumilla had a pass rate of 85.22 percent, Jashore 87.31 percent, Chattogram 84.75 percent, Barishal 79.70 percent, Sylhet 78.79 percent, Dinajpur 82.73 percent and Mymensingh 80.13 percent.

A team of Chinese medical experts, said to have first-hand experience in containing coronavirus and treating patients with success, is expected to arrive in Bangladesh with necessary medical equipment on June 8. Organised by the National Health Commission of China, the team will consist of 10 respiratory physicians and they will visit designated hospitals, quarantine centres, and testing centres, the Chinese embassy said in a statement.

They will hold discussions with their Bangladeshi counterparts and make calibrated propositions for containment and treatment during their two-week stay in Bangladesh, the statement added.

The death toll in Bangladesh stands at 781 as of June 4, with 2423 individuals having tested positive for Covid-19 in the preceding 24 hours to take the total number of infections in the country to 57,563.

Gonoshasthaya Kendra asked the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University to suspend the performance trial of their coronavirus antigen testing kit after detection of discrepancy in the collection of saliva. "The monitoring team for the performance trial identified that the presence of thick cough causes negative results in a number of samples. So, we have sought temporary suspension of the trial," said Dr Mohib Ullah Khondoker, coordinator of Gonoshasthaya's Covid-19 Rapid Dot Blot Project. Clear saliva is necessary for testing antigen, he said.

Gonoshasthaya Kendra has, meanwhile, sought speedy completion of the trial of their antibody test kit (there are two elements to their testing kit- antibody and antigen) and submission of the report to the Directorate General of Drug Administration so that the latter can authorise mass production and marketing of the antibody test kit.