With new variants of Covid-19 spreading faster than ever before in several parts of the world, the global caseload is fast approaching 154 million.
According to Johns Hopkins University (JHU), the total global case count reached 153,958,048 while the death toll climbed to 3,203,500 on Wednesday morning.
The US, the world's worst-hit country in terms of cases and deaths, have recorded 32,510,922 cases with 578,407 fatalities to data, as per the JHU data.
After the United States, the second outbreak of Covid has hit India hard. India’s Covid-19 cases surpassed 20 million on Tuesday as the second wave continued to paralyse the health system of the country.
With shortage of oxygen in many hospitals, India is trying hard to overcome the situation. The country’s total caseload and fatalities currently stand at 20,282,833 and 222,408, respectively.
Brazil on Tuesday reported 2,966 new deaths from Covid-19 in the past 24 hours, taking the nationwide death toll to 411,588, according to its health ministry.
Meanwhile, 77,359 new Covid-19 cases were detected, bringing the accumulated caseload to 14,856,888.
Brazil now has the world's second-highest Covid-19 death toll, after the United States, and the third-largest outbreak, behind the United States and India.
Also Read: Global Covid-19 cases top 142 million
According to the health ministry, Brazil now has a rate of 196 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants and 7,070 cases of infection per 100,000 inhabitants.
Situation in Bangladesh
Bangladesh logged 61 more coronavirus-related deaths and 1,914 new cases in 24 hours till Tuesday morning, showing a slight downtrend in daily fatalities and an uptick in infections.
The latest figures pushed up the death toll to 11,705 and the caseload to 7,65,596, according to a handout issued by the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
However, the infection rate fell to 8.71 percent from Monday’s 8.95 percent while the fatality rate rose to 1.53 percent.
Bangladesh reported its first cases on March 8 last year, before confirming the first death 10 days later.
Lockdown continues till May 16
The ongoing lockdown, imposed on April 5, has been extended till May 16.
People, however, are hardly following health safety rules. They are still crowding shopping malls and markets ahead of Eid-ul-Fitr, the biggest festival of the Muslims.
Also read: Covid claims 61 more lives, infects 1,914 others in Bangladesh
Photos and videos shot by UNB lensmen show overcrowded shopping places and total indifference towards health guidelines.
There will hardly be any positive outcome if people don’t follow health rules to protect themselves and others around them from coronavirus, according to experts.
Meanwhile, intra-district public transport services will be allowed to resume from May 6.
Vaccination drive
Bangladesh kicked off its vaccination drive on February 7 with doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine it acquired from the Serum Institute of India.
Bangladesh signed an agreement with Serum for 30 million doses. But a record surge in Covid cases in India has made the delivery of the doses uncertain.
DGHS DG Prof ABM Khurshid Alam has assured that Bangladesh will get 2.1 million doses of the vaccine by the first week of May.
In the past 24 hours, 38 people have received the first dose and 83,540 the second dose of the Covid vaccine, said the DGHS handout.
However, the registration process for receiving the vaccine jab remains shut.