Global Covid-19 cases surpass 175.5 million

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More than 175.5 million people have been detected globally with Coronavirus infections amid the emergence of its new variants.

The global case count and fatalities now stand at 175,567,564 and 3,791,424 respectively as of Sunday morning, according to Johns Hopkins University (JHU).

To date, some 2,314, 059,718 people have been vaccinated globally, as per JHU data.

The US, which is the world’s worst-hit country in terms of both cases and deaths, has so far logged 33,457,378 cases and 599,664 deaths, Johns Hopkins figures reveal.

Brazil registered 2,037 deaths from Covid-19, bringing the death toll in the country to 486,272, the Ministry of Health reported on Saturday.

In the last 24 hours, 78,700 new cases of Covid-19 were reported, for a total of 17,374,818 infections.

The average cases over the last seven days were 66,770, while that of deaths 1,963.

Brazil is currently second in the world in number of deaths from Covid-19, surpassed only by the United States, and third in cases, behind the United States and India.

India’s Covid-19 tally rose to 29,359,155 on Saturday, with 84,332 new cases recorded in the past 24 hours, said its federal health ministry.

Besides, 4,002 Covid-19 patients have died since Friday morning, taking the death toll to 367,081.

Situation in Bangladesh

Bangladesh registered 1,637 new Covid cases with the positivity rate hitting 14.12% in 24 hours until Saturday morning.

The positivity rate went up again from Friday’s 13.39 percent, said a handout of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).

This is the highest in 50 days since April 23 this year when the country reported 14% Covid positivity rate.

Besides, 39 people died due to Covid-19 during the period, pushing up the death toll to 13,071, while the caseload reached 8,24,486 with the logging of the new cases.

Vaccination drive

So far, four vaccines – Oxford-AstraZeneca (Covishield), Sputnik-V, Sinopharm, and Pfizer-BioNTech – have got the approval for emergency use in Bangladesh.

The country, the prime recipient of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines, has suspended the registration for Covid-19 jabs due to vaccine shortage amid a delay in the arrival of shipments from India.

However, Bangladesh will get some 10.8 lakh doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine soon under the COVAX initiative, said Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen Friday, adding that the source of this supply has not been disclosed to Bangladesh.

The country needs at least 15 lakh doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine immediately.

Source: United News of Bangladesh