Global Covid Cases Top 282 Million with Omicron Surge

The overall number of global coronavirus cases has surged past 282 million, with the new Covid strain Omicron showing a spike in hospitalisation.

According to Johns Hopkins University (JHU), the total case count mounted to 282,776,134 while the death toll from the virus reached 5,413,846 Wednesday morning.

The US has recorded 53,170,421 cases so far and more than 820,708 people have died from the virus in the country, the university data shows.

Brazil, which has been experiencing a new wave of cases since January, registered 22,259,270 cases as of Wednesday, while its Covid death toll rose to 618,978.

India's Covid-19 tally rose to 34,799,691 on Tuesday, as 6,358 new cases were registered during the past 24 hours across the country, as per the health ministry data.

Besides, as many as 293 deaths due to the pandemic were reported since Monday morning took the total death toll to 480,290.

Meanwhile, the country's Omicron tally has reached 653 and at least 186 have recovered, the health ministry said.

Covid situation in Bangladesh

Bangladesh logged another Covid-linked death with 397 fresh infections in 24 hours till Tuesday morning.

With the detection of the fresh cases after testing 18, 941 samples, the daily-case positivity rate slightly declined to 2.10 per cent from Monday’s 2.16 per cent during the period, said the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).

The latest deceased, hailing from Dhaka division, was a woman in her 60s.

The fresh numbers reported on Tuesday took the country’s total fatalities to 28,062 while the caseload mounted to 15,84,023.

Meanwhile, the mortality rate remained static at 1.77 per cent during the period.

Besides, the recovery rate remained static at 97.73 per cent with the recovery of 294 more patients during the 24-hour period.

On Monday, Bangladesh logged only one Covid-linked death and 373 fresh infections in 24 hours.

Though the deaths remained below five since December 13, the daily cases remained mostly over 250, according to data provided by the DGHS.

On December 9, Bangladesh again logged zero Covid-related death after nearly three weeks as the pandemic was apparently showing signs of easing.

The country reported this year’s first zero Covid-related death in a single day on November 20 along with 178 infections since the pandemic broke out in Bangladesh in March 2020.

Bangladesh reported the highest number of daily fatalities of 264 on August 5 this year, while the highest daily caseload was 16,230 on July 28 this year.