Online Desk: The number of dengue cases so far this year in Bangladesh has increased by 251 to 316,411 in the latest daily count.

The mosquito-borne disease caused seven deaths in the 24 hours to Friday morning, taking the toll this year to 1,650, according to the Directorate General of Health Services.

In Dhaka, hospitals admitted 64 patients in this period while the other districts recorded 187 new cases. The death toll in the capital was four.

Of the 2,384 dengue patients undergoing treatment in hospitals across the country in the morning, 615 were in Dhaka and 1,769 outside the capital.

After a record 79,598 dengue cases and 396 deaths in September amid the worst outbreak of the disease, 67,769 cases and 359 deaths were reported in October. The number of cases in August was 71,976, with 342 deaths.

The death toll in November was 274. As many as 40,716 new dengue cases were recorded last month.

Experts have blamed a prolonged monsoon and rising temperature, along with a lack of effective measures to kill the Aedes aegypti mosquito, the known carrier of the virus, for the outbreak.