Thousands of beds for coronavirus patients in Bangladesh are lying empty despite the country struggling with a rising caseload as people are too scared to enter hospitals, AFP reported while quoting officials and sufferers.

Some patients have bluntly told health workers they would “rather die at home than die in a hospital”, an official for a medical charity told AFP.

In the capital Dhaka, about 4,750 of 6,305 beds set aside for coronavirus patients are not being used, the government's health department acknowledged.

At a new 2,000-bed field hospital especially built to fight the pandemic, only about 100 patients are inside.

Authorities in the second city of Chittagong, which has emerged as a virus hotspot, say only half of its dedicated hospital beds are currently filled.