DHAKA, Bangladesh

A Bangladeshi state minister who died at the country's main military-administered hospital late Saturday had contracted coronavirus, an official confirmed on Sunday.

State Minister for Religious Affairs Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, 74, "tested positive for the coronavirus,” Nurul Islam, secretary of the same ministry, told Anadolu Agency over the phone Sunday evening.

After some official formalities, Abdullah's body was taken to his native village in the mid-southern district of Gopalganj for burial, Islam said.   

He added: “The [state] minister died at around 11.45 p.m. [1845GMT] Saturday night at the Dhaka Central Military Hospital minutes after he reached there.”

His death was attributed to cardiac problems.

President Abdul Hamid, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Foreign Minister Abdul Momen expressed shock over Abdullah’s death and conveyed sympathy to bereaved family members.

Meanwhile, another doctor died of coronavirus in Bangladesh Sunday morning, raising the total fatalities among the physicians to 34, also the highest death toll in a single profession, according to a local doctors’ group.

“So far a total of 1,180 doctors have been infected by the virus till the date and of them another five have died with coronavirus symptoms,” Dr. Shahed Pavel, head of the Bangladesh Doctors’ Foundation, told Anadolu Agency.

He urged the government to immediately dedicate a special hospital to treat only doctors infected by the virus, warning: "Otherwise, the whole health sector may face grave danger.”

To date, the overcrowded South Asian country of 165 million people recorded 1,171 fatalities from COVID-19 while the total cases reached 87,520 since the virus was first detected on March 8.