With new variants of Covid-19 spreading faster than ever before in several parts of the world, the global corona cases are now approaching 173 million.
According to Johns Hopkins University (JHU), the total global case count reached 172,859, 512 while the death toll climbed to 3,718,408 on Sunday morning.
The US, the world's worst-hit country in terms of cases and deaths, have recorded 33,057,380 cases with 597,377 fatalities to date, as per the JHU data.
Neighbouring India’s total Covid case count is fast approaching the 29-million mark. The country’s caseload and fatalities stand at 28,694, 879 and 344,082, respectively, as of Sunday morning.
Brazil registered 1,689 more deaths from Covid-19 in the past 24 hours, bringing the nationwide tally to 472,531, the country’s health ministry said on Saturday.
READ: Global Covid deaths top 3.5 million
A total of 66,017 new infections were detected, raising the caseload to 16,907,425, the ministry said.
Brazil has the world's second highest Covid-19 death toll, after the United States, and the third largest caseload, behind the United States and India.
Situation in Bangladesh
As Coronavirus-related deaths and infections keep growing in Bangladesh, the country recorded 43 more deaths in the past 24 hours till Saturday morning.
Besides, 1,447 new cases were registered during the period, taking the country's caseload to 809,314.
With the latest death toll, the total number of fatalities rose to 12,801.
READ: Global Covid-19 cases hit 168 million
Bangladesh reported its first Covid cases on March 8 last year and the first death on the 18th of that month.
Lockdown in districts
Due to the recent rise in Covid infections in frontier districts, district administrations have imposed lockdowns in Rajshahi, Khulna, Satkhira, Chapainawabganj, Teknaf upazila, five Rohingya camps and parts of Naogaon, Noakhali districts to curb the transmission of the virus.
The district administrations have been given the authority to enforce lockdowns in their areas if the Covid-19 situation worsens.
Vaccination drive
Bangladesh launched its vaccination drive on February 7 with Oxford-AstraZeneca doses bought from India's Serum Institute.
Covid-19: Bangladesh registers 43 more deaths; positivity rate hits 11.03%
So far, four vaccines – Oxford-AstraZeneca (Covishield), Sputnik-V, Sinopharm, and Pfizer-BioNTech – have got the authorisation for emergency use in the country.
Meanwhile, seven million doses of Oxford-AstraZeneca Covishield vaccine reached Bangladesh, and the governments of India and China gave 3.2 million doses and 500,000 doses of coronavirus vaccine as gifts.
However, 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.