Global Covid Cases Approach 191 Million

The global Covid-19 caseload is fast nearing the grim milestone of 191 million as the highly contagious Delta variant is spreading rapidly in several countries amid mass vaccination drives.

The total caseload and fatalities stand at 190,877,071 and 4,095,650, respectively, as of Tuesday morning, according to Johns Hopkins University (JHU).

So far, 3,646,506,843 vaccine doses have been administered across the globe.

The US, which is the world's worst-hit country in terms of both cases and deaths, has so far logged 34,129,941 cases. Besides, 609,231 people have lost their lives in the US to date, as per the JHU data.

Brazil has registered 542 more Covid-19 deaths in the past 24 hours, raising its national death toll to 542,756, the health ministry said Monday.

As many as 15,271 new cases were detected during the period, taking the total caseload to 19,391,845, the ministry said.

Brazil currently has the world's second-highest pandemic death toll after the United States, and the third-largest caseload after the United States and India.

The third worst-hit country, India's tally rose to 31,144,229 after 38,164 new cases were registered in the past 24 hours across the country, the federal health ministry's latest data showed.

Besides, 499 deaths due to the pandemic since Sunday morning took the total death toll to 414,108.

Situation in Bangladesh

Reeling from the devastating second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, Bangladesh on Monday saw 231 corona-related deaths, the highest since the pandemic hit the country, amid an eight-day pause in the nationwide strict lockdown.

The situation is likely to get worse because of the fallout from the lockdown pause ahead of Eid holidays, many experts believe.

With Covid's Delta variant spreading fast, Bangladesh have already tallied more than 1.1 million infections and 18,000-plus deaths from the pandemic. The country's fatalities have been hovering at roughly 200 for the past two weeks.

Also, Covid-19 infections in Bangladesh have reached 99% of the peak, with more than 11,828 new cases reported each day. The highest daily average was reported on July 15.

The country recorded 13,321 infections in 24 hours till Monday morning after testing 45,012 samples.

Bangladesh reported its highest daily Covid-19 fatality of 230 on July 11 and 13,768 infections the next day.

The second wave of the pandemic is threatening to overwhelm the country's health infrastructure.

There have been 1,117,310 infections and 18,125 coronavirus-related deaths in Bangladesh since the pandemic began, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).

Meanwhile, the daily test positivity rate rose to 29.59% though the death rate remained unchanged at 1.62%, and the recovery rate dropped to 84.25%.

Dhaka division reported the highest 73 deaths, Khulna 57, Chattogram 43, Rangpur 17, Rajshahi 16, Mymensingh 11, Sylhet eight and Barisal six.

So far, Bangladesh has administered at least 10,908,272 doses of Covid vaccines – enough to have vaccinated around 3.1% of the country's population, assuming every person needs two doses.

Source: UNB