The total case count reached 111,343,040 while the death toll from the virus mounted to 2, 465,846.

The death toll in the USA reached 498,879 on Monday and a total of 28,133,627 people have been infected.

The U.S. stood Sunday at the brink of a once-unthinkable tally: 500,000 people lost to the coronavirus.

A year into the pandemic, the running total of lives lost was about 498,000 — roughly the population of Kansas City, Missouri, and just shy of the size of Atlanta. The figure compiled by Johns Hopkins University surpasses the number of people who died in 2019 of chronic lower respiratory diseases, stroke, Alzheimer’s, flu and pneumonia combined, reports AP.

Also read: US coronavirus death toll approaches milestone of 500,000

The U.S. virus death toll reached 400,000 on Jan. 19 in the waning hours in office for President Donald Trump, whose handling of the crisis was judged by public health experts to be a singular failure.

The first known deaths from the virus in the U.S. happened in early February 2020, both of them in Santa Clara County, California. It took four months to reach the first 100,000 dead. The toll hit 200,000 deaths in September and 300,000 in December. Then it took just over a month to go from 300,000 to 400,000 and about two months to climb from 400,000 to the brink of 500,000.

Also read:Covid-19: Global cases top 108.7 million

Besides, Brazil registered 527 deaths from COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, raising the death toll to 246,504, the Ministry of Health reported on Sunday.

The ministry also reported 29,026 more cases, bringing the national count to 10,168,174.

Brazil has the second highest number of deaths, after the United States, and the third highest number of cases, behind the United States and India.

India’s total tally stood 10,991,651 as of Monday morning and the death toll from the virus reached 156,302.

Situation in Bangladesh

Bangladesh saw a rise in Covid-19 related deaths and a decline in new cases in the last 24 hours until Sunday morning.

Also read: Covid-19 in Bangladesh: New cases, fatalities fall slightly

Seven coronavirus-related deaths and 327 new cases were reported. On Saturday, five deaths and 350 fresh cases were confirmed.

Bangladesh reported its first cases on March 8 and the first death on March 18.

The daily infection rate was 2.33% on Sunday which was 3.14% on Saturday, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).

So far, 543,351 Covid-19 cases have been confirmed, including 8,349 fatalities.

According to the latest figures, the overall infection rate stood at 13.76% which was 13.8% percent on Saturday. The rate is expected to fall further as a countrywide coronavirus vaccination drive is underway.

The mortality rate remained steady at 1.54% since Saturday, the DGHS handout said.

Vaccination in Bangladesh

The countrywide Covid-19 vaccination drive kicked off on February 7.

Bangladesh signed an agreement with the Serum Institute of India Pvt Ltd, the world’s largest vaccine maker, for 30 million doses of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine. Serum will send five million doses each month between January and June.

Five million doses arrived in January and India gifted another two million doses as gift.

Also read: Covid-19 vaccine: 130 countries yet to administer a single dose

The government brought down the age to 40 for registration to get jabs. The doses are being provided for free.

So far, 2,082,877 people have received the first shot. The second one has to be taken within 8 to 12 weeks of the first dose.