According to Johns Hopkins University (JHU), the total Covid case count reached 99,706,375 while the death toll climbed to 2,139,803 on Tuesday morning.

Also read: Covid-19: Global caseload nearing 100 million, as travel bans loom in reaction to new variants

The US remained the world's worst-hit country, with 25,291,320 cases and 420,965 fatalities, as per the latest university data.

Coronavirus deaths and cases per day in the US dropped markedly over the past couple of weeks, but are still running at alarmingly high levels, and the effort to snuff out COVID-19 is becoming an ever more urgent race between the vaccine and the mutating virus, reports AP.

The government’s top infectious-disease expert, Dr Anthony Fauci, said the improvement in numbers around the country appears to reflect a “natural peaking and then plateauing” after a holiday surge, rather than the arrival of the vaccine in mid-December.

The US is recording just under 3,100 deaths a day on average, down from more than 3,350 less than two weeks ago.

New cases are averaging about 170,000 a day after peaking at almost 250,000 on January 11. The number of hospitalised Covid patients has fallen to about 110,000 from a high of 132,000 on January 7.

India's Covid tally rose to 10,667, 736 on Tuesday, while the death toll mounted to 153,470, the Health Ministry said.

Brazil on Monday registered 627 deaths from Covid in the past 24 hours, raising the death toll to 217,664, the Ministry of Health said.

Tests detected 26,816 new infections, bringing the national caseload to 8,871,393, it added.

Brazil, which is experiencing a second wave of Covid, with a rise in cases and deaths since December, began mass vaccination against the disease last week.

Also read: Covid-19 in Bangladesh: 18 more die, 602 infected newly

Covid-19 situation in Bangladesh

Eighteen more people died of Covid-19 in Bangladesh and another 602 got infected by the deadly virus in the past 24 hours till Monday morning.

The death toll from the pandemic rose to 8,041 while the total caseload reached 5,32,401, said the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) in a handout.

The DGHS handout pegged the daily detection rate at 4.06 percent and the overall rate at 14.91 percent.

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

Mass vaccination

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is scheduled to launch coronavirus vaccination drive at Kurmitola General Hospital in the capital on January 27.

She will inaugurate the vaccination programme virtually, said Abdul Mannan, Secretary of Health Service Division of the Health Ministry, on Saturday.
 
The primary vaccine campaign will begin by vaccinating a nurse at the hospital, he said.

Also read: Bangladesh receives 1st consignment of imported Covid vaccine doses

Bangladesh receives vaccine

The first consignment containing five million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine purchased by Bangladesh from licensed manufacturers Serum Institute of India under the brand name Covishield reached Dhaka on Monday.

Last week, Bangladesh received two million doses of Covid-19 vaccine gifted by India.