The world is struggling to contain the second outbreak of Covid-19 even with mass inoculations underway. The total global caseload is fast approaching 148 million.
While the total Covid case count reached 147,533,386, the death toll from the virus mounted to 3,116,908 on Tuesday morning, according to Johns Hopkins University.
The US, which is the world's worst-hit country in terms of both cases and deaths, has so far registered 32,124,369 cases and 572,666 deaths, respectively, as per the university data.
Brazil's Covid-19 death toll on Monday reached 391,936 after registering 1,139 more fatalities in 24 hours, the health ministry reported.
The ministry said that another 28,636 cases were registered, bringing the national count to 14,369,423.
Since the beginning of this year, the country has been facing a new wave of the virus, which has resulted in the partial collapse of its healthcare system.
Also read: Covid situation in Bangladesh unlikely to improve before June: Experts
Neighbouring India is facing an acute shortage of oxygen and beds in hospitals as it witnesses a ferocious second wave of Covid-19. The South Asian Country has been of late registering over 3 lakh new cases daily.
The total caseload in India and fatalities currently stand at 17, 313,163 and 195,123, according to the health ministry.
On Monday, the country reported 2,812 more deaths, with roughly 117 Indians succumbing to the disease every hour, and experts say even those figures are probably an undercount. The new infections brought India’s tally to more than 17.3 million, behind only the United States, reports AP.
Situation in Bangladesh
Bangladesh on Monday reported 97 more coronavirus-related deaths and 3,306 new cases as the country grapples with a second and deadlier wave of the virus.
The daily infection rate dropped to 12.82 percent from Monday’s 13.33 percent, but the mortality rate rose to 1.49 percent.
So far, 748,628 cases and 11,150 deaths have been confirmed, the Directorate General of Health Services said in a handout.
Also read: India records world's highest single-day spike in Covid cases
Bangladesh reported its first coronavirus cases on March 8 last year and the first death on the 18th of that month.
Lockdown extended
The surge in Covid infections prompted the government to go for a lockdown from early April. Having failed to achieve the intended result, it imposed a complete lockdown from April 11 and extended it to April 28.
On Monday, State Minister for Public Administration Farhad Hossain said the government would extend the lockdown till May 5, "as there is no improvement of the Covid-19 situation".
However, shopping malls will remain open from 10am to 8pm during the extended period, he said.
Vaccination campaign
Bangladesh launched a vaccination drive on February 7 with Oxford-AstraZeneca doses it acquired from the Serum Institute of India.
Bangladesh signed an agreement with Serum for 30 million doses. But a record number of cases in India has made the delivery of the doses uncertain.
DGHS DG Prof ABM Khurshid Alam, however, assured that Bangladesh will get 2.1 million doses of the vaccine by the first week of May.
So far, 5,818,400 people have received the first dose and 2,326,866 heir second shot, according to official figures.