The overall number of Covid cases has surged past 256 million amid the global race to vaccinate masses against the infectious disease.

According to Johns Hopkins University (JHU), the total case count mounted to 256,617,432 while the death toll from the virus reached 5,139,946 Saturday morning.

The US has recorded 47,658, 708 cases to date and more than 770,671 people have died so far from the virus in the country, as per the university data.

Brazil, which has been experiencing a new wave of cases since January, registered 22,003,317 cases as of Friday, while its Covid death toll rose to 612,370.

India's Covid-19 tally rose to 34,489,623 on Friday, as 11,106 new cases were registered during the past 24 hours across the country, showed the federal health ministry data.

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Besides, 459 deaths have been recorded since Thursday morning, taking the death toll to 465,082.

Situation in Bangladesh

Bangladesh logged seven more Covid-linked deaths and 253 fresh infections in 24 hours till Friday morning, according to the Directorate General of Health Services.

Of the deceased three were men and four women, said DGHS.

The daily case positivity rate increased to 1.40 from Thursday’s 1.25 percent.

The fresh numbers took the total fatalities to 27,946 while the country’s caseload mounted to 15, 73,711, said DGHS.

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Dhaka division logged six Covid-related deaths while Chattogram division logged one during the period, it said.

However, the mortality rate remained static at 1.78 percent.

The fresh cases were detected after testing 18,124 samples, the directorate added.

Besides, the recovery rate remained the same as 97.72 percent, with the recovery of 294 more patients during the 24-hour period.