coronavirus
Nearly 15M deaths associated with COVID-19: WHO
The World Health Organization is estimating that nearly 15 million people were killed either by the coronavirus or by its impact on overwhelmed health systems in the past two years, more than double the official death toll of 6 million. Most of the fatalities were in Southeast Asia, Europe and the Americas.
In a report released on Thursday, the U.N. agency’s chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus described the figure as “sobering,” saying it should prompt countries to invest more in their capacities to quell future health emergencies.
Also read: WHO recommends Pfizer's Covid pill Paxlovid
Scientists tasked by WHO with calculating the actual number of COVID-19 deaths between January 2020 and the end of last year estimated there were between 13.3 million and 16.6 million deaths that were either caused directly by the coronavirus or were somehow attributed to the pandemic’s impact on health systems, like people with cancer unable to seek treatment when hospitals were full of COVID patients.
The figures are based on country-reported data and statistical modelling. WHO did not immediately break down the figures to distinguish between direct deaths from COVID-19 and others caused by the pandemic.
“This may seem like just a bean-counting exercise, but having these WHO numbers is so critical to understanding how we should combat future pandemics and continue to respond to this one,” said Albert Ko, an infectious diseases specialist at the Yale School of Public Health who was not linked to the WHO research. For example, Ko said, South Korea’s decision to invest heavily in public health after it suffered a severe outbreak of MERS allowed it to escape COVID-19 with a per-capita death rate around a 20th of that of the U.S.
Accurate numbers on COVID-19 deaths have been problematic throughout the pandemic, as the figures are only a fraction of the devastation wrought by the virus, largely because of limited testing and differences in how countries count COVID-19 deaths. According to government figures reported to WHO and to a separate count kept by Johns Hopkins University, there have been more than 6 million reported coronavirus deaths to date.
Scientists at the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington guessed there were more than 18 million COVID deaths from January 2020 to December 2021 in a recent study published in the journal Lancet, and a team led by Canadian researchers estimated there were more than 3 million uncounted coronavirus deaths in India alone.
Also read: WHO says global COVID cases, deaths declined again last week
Some countries, including India, have disputed WHO’s methodology for calculating COVID deaths, resisting the idea that there were many more deaths than officially counted. Earlier this week, the Indian government released new figures showing there were 474,806 more deaths in 2020 compared to the previous year, but did not say how many were tied to the pandemic. India did not release any death estimates for 2021, when the highly infectious delta variant swept through the country, killing many thousands.
Yale’s Ko said better figures from WHO might also explain some lingering mysteries about the pandemic, like why Africa appears to have been one of the least affected by the virus, despite its low vaccination rates. “Were the mortality rates so low because we couldn’t count the deaths or was there some other factor to explain that?” he said, adding that the crush of deaths in rich countries like Britain and the U.S. proved that resources alone were insufficient to contain a global outbreak.
Dr. Bharat Pankhania, a public health specialist at Britain’s University of Exeter, said we may never get close to the true toll of COVID-19, particularly in poor countries.
“When you have a massive outbreak where people are dying in the streets because of a lack of oxygen, bodies were abandoned or people had to be cremated quickly because of cultural beliefs, we end up never knowing just how many people died,” he explained.
Although Pankhania said the currently estimated COVID-19 death toll still pales in comparison to the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic — when experts estimate up to 100 million people died — he said the fact that so many people died despite the advances of modern medicine, including vaccines, is shameful.
He also warned the cost of COVID-19 could be far more damaging in the long term, given the increasing burden of long COVID.
“With the Spanish flu, there was the flu and then there were some (lung) illnesses people suffered, but that was it,” he said. “There was not an enduring immunological condition that we’re seeing right now with COVID,” he said.
“We do not know the extent to which people with long COVID will have their lives cut short and if they will have repeated infections that will cause them even more problems.”
Surprisingly low Shanghai COVID death count spurs questions
Lu Muying died on April 1 in a government quarantine facility in Shanghai, with her family on the phone as doctors tried to resuscitate her. She had tested positive for COVID-19 in late March and was moved there in line with government policy that all coronavirus cases be centrally isolated.
But the 99-year-old, who was just two weeks shy of her 100th birthday, was not counted as a COVID-19 death in Shanghai's official tally. In fact, the city of more than 25 million has only reported 25 coronavirus deaths despite an outbreak that has spanned nearly two months and infected hundreds of thousands of people in the world’s third-largest city.
Lu’s death underscores how the true extent of the virus toll in Shanghai has been obscured by Chinese authorities. Doctors told Lu's relatives she died because COVID-19 exacerbated her underlying heart disease and high blood pressure, yet she still was not counted.
Interviews with family members of patients who have tested positive, a publicly released phone call with a government health official and an internet archive compiled by families of the dead all raise issues with how the city is counting its cases and deaths, almost certainly resulting in a marked undercount.
The result is a blurred portrait of an outbreak that has sweeping ramifications for both the people of Shanghai and the rest of the world, given the city’s place as an economic, manufacturing and shipping hub.
Also read:Shanghai reports 1st deaths from current COVID-19 outbreak
An Associated Press examination of the death toll sheds light on how the numbers have been clouded by the way Chinese health authorities tally COVID-19 statistics, applying a much narrower, less transparent, and at times inconsistent standard than the rest of the world.
In most countries, including the United States, guidelines stipulate that any death where COVID-19 is a factor or contributor is counted as a COVID-related death.
But in China, health authorities count only those who died directly from COVID-19, excluding those, like Lu, whose underlying conditions were worsened by the virus, said Zhang Zuo-Feng, an epidemiologist at the University of California, Los Angeles.
“If the deaths could be ascribed to underlying disease, they will always report it as such and will not count it as a COVID-related death, that’s their pattern for many years,” said Jin Dong-yan, a virologist at the University of Hong Kong’s medical school.
That narrower criteria means China's COVID-19 death toll will always be significantly lower than those of many other nations.
Both Jin and Zhang said this has been China’s practice since the beginning of the pandemic and is not proof of a deliberate attempt to underreport the death count.
However, Shanghai authorities have quietly changed other standards behind the scenes, in ways that have violated China’s own regulations and muddied the virus’ true toll.
During this outbreak, Shanghai health authorities have only considered virus cases where lung scans show a patient with evidence of pneumonia as “symptomatic,” three people, including a Chinese public health official, told the AP. All other patients are considered “asymptomatic” even if they test positive and have other typical COVID-19 symptoms like sneezing, coughing or headaches.
This way of classifying asymptomatic cases conflicts with China's past national guidelines. It's also a sharp change from January, when Wu Fan, a member of Shanghai’s epidemic prevention expert group, said that those with even the slightest symptoms, like fatigue or a sore throat, would be “strictly” classified as a symptomatic case.
Further adding to the confusion, the city has overlapping systems to track whether someone has the virus. City residents primarily rely on what's called their Health Cloud, a mobile application that allows them to see their COVID-19 test results. However, the Shanghai health authorities have a separate system to track COVID-19 test results, and they have the sole authority to confirm cases. At times, the data between the systems conflict.
In practice, these shifting and inconsistent processes give China's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention “wiggle room” to determine COVID-related deaths, said the Chinese health official, allowing them to rule out the coronavirus as being the cause of death for people who didn’t have lung scans or positive test results logged on their apps. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive topic.
In response to questions about Shanghai's COVID-19 figures, China’s top medical authority, the National Health Commission, said in a fax that there is “no basis to suspect the accuracy of China’s epidemic data and statistics.” Shanghai’s city government did not respond to a faxed request for comment.
Statements from the authorities are little comfort to the relatives of the dead. Chinese internet users, doubting the official figures, have built a virtual archive of the deaths that have occurred since Shanghai’s lockdown based on firsthand information posted online. They have recorded 170 deaths so far.
Chinese media reports on the unrecorded COVID-19 deaths have been swiftly censored, and many criticisms of Shanghai’s stringent measures expunged online. Instead, state media has continued to uphold China's zero-COVID approach as proof of the success of its political system, especially as the world's official death toll climbs past 6.2 million.
Also read: Shanghai quarantine: 24-hour lights, no hot showers
Earlier this month, doubts over the data burst into public view when a Shanghai resident uploaded a recording of a phone conversation he had with a CDC officer in which he questioned why city health authorities told his father he had tested positive for COVID-19 when data on his father’s mobile application showed up as negative.
“Didn’t I tell you to not look at the Health Cloud?" said the official, Zhu Weiping, referring to the app. "The positive cases are only from us notifying people.”
Others skeptical of the data include relatives of Zong Shan, an 86-year-old former Russian translator who died March 29. Despite testing positive and being moved to a government quarantine facility, online test results showed Zong supposedly was negative for COVID-19 on the day of her death.
“My relative, like most of the other people in Shanghai who were notified as positive, all reported negative results” on the Health Cloud app, one of Zong's relatives said, declining to be named for fear of retribution.
Zong was taken to a government quarantine facility from the Donghai Elderly Care Hospital on March 29, and died there that night. The family was told by hospital staff she was being transferred after she tested positive for COVID-19. But they didn't think the virus was the biggest threat to her health — rather, it was the dearth of nursing care at the quarantine facility. Zong needed to be fed liquids and couldn't eat without assistance.
She had been in stable condition before the transfer, said a relative. When the family asked for the cause of death, doctors didn't give a clear answer.
“They gave me very vague answers. One minute they said it was stroke, then they said this was also just a hypothesis,” said the relative. “But on one point, they were very clear, they said it had nothing to do with COVID. Her lungs were clear.”
Lu, who was also transferred from the Donghai hospital, would have celebrated her 100th birthday April 16; her relatives had ordered a cake and gotten permission to host a small celebration Thursday. But when she tested positive, the family made mental preparations for her death, acknowledging she had lived a long life.
But the strange thing, a relative said, was the night before she died, the doctor had specifically called the family to let them know Lu was now testing negative for COVID-19. Ultimately, the doctor said she died because the virus had worsened her underlying illnesses, said the relative, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the issue.
Further, the family knew of another patient from the same hospital, a neighbor, who died the day after being transferred to a quarantine facility on March 25 and also had not been counted.
Jin, the Hong Kong virologist, noted the potential political benefits of Shanghai's low official COVID-19 death toll.
“They might claim this is their achievement, and this is is their victory,” Jin said.
COVID-19 Omicron XE Variant: Should we be worried?
A new strain of Omicron known as XE is causing outbreaks in the United Kingdom, and a few instances have been reported elsewhere in the globe. The Omicron XE strain was discovered in a lady in her 30s who came from the United States to Narita International Airport on March 26 2022. According to Japan's health ministry, the lady, whose country was not immediately known, was asymptomatic. This page summarizes what is known about the most recent Corona strain.
What is the Omicron XE variant?
The XE variety is a recombinant virus, which means that it combines elements of two separate strains of Omicron, in this instance, BA.1, the original strain of Omicron, and BA.2, dubbed "stealth omicron."
According to health professionals, recombinant variations are not unusual. Recombinant variations are not totally uncommon, especially when many variants are in circulation, as numerous have been detected so far in the pandemic. As is the case with different other types of variants, the majority will perish rather fast.
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As per the official website of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's, epidemiologists in the United States are not actively monitoring XE. It has not been recognized as a variant of interest or concern.
According to an early study, XE may be the fastest-spreading strain to date, although more research is needed to confirm the variant's actual contagiousness.
The UK Health Security Agency showed in late March that XE has a growth rate of 9.8 percent higher than BA.2. The World Health Organization has issued a similar statement, citing estimates that XE is 10% more contagious than BA.2. However, the agency warned that such conclusions need validation.
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What are the Symptoms of Omicron XE?
As the sub variation is new, the situation may alter, but it is not presently believed that XE causes additional symptoms. The most often reported symptoms of the original Omicron strain are similar to those of a cold, specially in those who have been vaccinated.
According to NHS.uk, further indicators of Covid-19 to watch for include shortness of breath, fatigue, an aching body, a headache, a sore throat, a clogged or runny nose, lack of appetite, diarrhea, feeling nauseous, or being sick.
In Which Places Omicron XE Variant Has Spread So Far
The first case of XE was discovered in the United Kingdom on January 19, 2022. According to the UKHSA, moreover, 600 instances of XE have been found there to date—less than 1% of all sequenced cases. That is a fraction of the rate of cases caused by BA.2, which is currently the predominant strain of SARS-CoV-2 in the United Kingdom and around the world.
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Additionally, XE has been discovered in India and Thailand. According to Bloomberg, one incident was reported on April 6 in Mumbai, while on April 4, the Center for Medical Genomics in Bangkok reported one recent case of XE.
Should We Be Worried About the Omicron XE Variant
Early estimates indicate that XE may be more transmissible than previous strains since it has so far grown at a somewhat faster pace than its predecessor.
According to UKHSA statistics, XE has a growth rate of 9.8 percent greater than BA.2, but the World Health Organization has previously estimated the number at 10%. However, researchers predict that its severity will decline as it spreads more readily. XE has not been designated as a variation of concern so far.
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XE seems to be following the same path as BA.2, with increasing transmissibility to BA.1 but less severe symptoms," Jennifer Horney, an epidemiology professor at the University of Delaware, stated.
"It is, in a sense, the devil we know. It is basically a reshuffle of the same deck of cards," noted Mark Cameron, an associate professor in Case Western Reserve University's School of Medicine.
XE has a spike and structural proteins from the same viral family as Omicron, implying that it should act similarly to Omicron in the past. As a result, existing vaccinations and immunity should give some protection against infection.
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"Recombinants that have both the spike and structural proteins from a single virus (such as XE or XF) are very likely to behave similarly to [their] mother virus," Tom Peacock, a virologist at Imperial College London's Department of Infectious Disease, stated in a mid-March Twitter thread. XF refers to another recombinant that was discovered in the United Kingdom in February.
Other recombinants comprising spike and structural proteins from other viral families, on the other hand, continue to arise. This includes the newly identified XD subvariant in Germany, the Netherlands, and Denmark, which comprises delta structural proteins and omicron spike proteins, characterized by Peacock as "a bit more worrying."
As such, any new emergencies must be properly examined, particularly during their first stages, to ensure they do not develop into something more problematic.
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"The virus remains capable of evolving, recombining, and forming a new branch of its family tree," Cameron said.
"The critical finding is that for these variations and subvariants, the risk of hospital readmission appears to be lower on average in areas with higher vaccination rates, implying that vaccination, including a third dose, should be efficient in decreasing risk for severe disease," added Stephanie Silvera, professor of public health at Montclair State University.
What is Still not Known Yet?
There is insufficient evidence to determine if XE will spread faster or produce more severe sickness than previous SARS-CoV-2 genotypes. "There is scant data at this time to form judgments regarding transmissibility, severity, or vaccination efficacy," Susan Hopkins, the UKHSA's chief medical adviser, said in a statement.
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However, some information may be deduced from the two strains that make it. It has long been shown that vaccinations protect against symptomatic sickness caused by BA.1 and BA.2. It is to believe vaccination techniques will provide protection against symptomatic sickness caused by XE.
Another indication is that BA.1 and BA.2 are both capable of evading some monoclonal antibody therapy. As a result, such medications are unlikely to be as effective against XE. Additionally, it’s also been known that the other treatments, which are mostly utilized in the outpatient setting—Paxlovid and molnupiravir—should retain effectiveness against the XE strain based on their mechanism of action.
Conclusion
Because the WHO is monitoring XE under the omicron umbrella, it does not yet have its own Greek letter moniker. According to the organization, XE is classified as an omicron variation unless substantial changes in disease transmission and features, including severity, are identified. The organization urges individuals globally to exercise additional vigilance.
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If proper measures are not taken the new variant can spread to other countries of the world and affect millions of people. However, it is not the right time to predict the impact of this new Coronavirus. On the whole, to stay safe from the Covid-19's new strain Omicron XE we have to maintain hygiene and social distance.
US experts wrestle with how to update COVID-19 vaccines
More than two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. health officials are beginning to grapple with how to keep the vaccines updated to best protect Americans from the ever-changing coronavirus.
On Wednesday, a panel of vaccine advisers to the Food and Drug Administration spent hours debating key questions for revamping the shots and conducting future booster campaigns. They didn't reach any firm conclusions.
The questions facing the experts included: How often to update the vaccines against new strains, how effective they should be to warrant approval and whether updates should be coordinated with global health authorities.
Last week, the FDA authorized a fourth dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines for anyone 50 or older and for some younger people with severely weakened immune systems. It’s an effort to get ahead of another possible surge.
Also read: UN finds link between widening inequalities and vaccine access
But the FDA's vaccine chief Dr. Peter Marks acknowledged at the meeting “we simply can’t be boosting people as frequently as we are.” He called the latest booster update a “stopgap” measure to protect vulnerable Americans while regulators decide whether and how to tweak the current vaccines.
Marks cautioned that waning vaccine protection, new variants and colder weather in the fall could raise the risk of more surges.
“Our goal here is to stay ahead of future variants and outbreaks and ensure we do our best to reduce the toll of disease and death due to COVID-19,” said Marks, adding that he expects more meetings of the vaccine panel in coming months.
Some of the key questions the panel discussed:
HOW SHOULD THE U.S. DECIDE WHEN TO LAUNCH FUTURE ROUNDS OF BOOSTER SHOTS?
One area where experts appeared to agree is that vaccines should be judged on their ability to prevent severe disease that leads to hospitalization and death.
“We need to focus on the worst case, which is severe disease, and we need to change strains when we’re losing that battle,” said Dr. Mark Sawyer of the University of California, San Diego.
By that measure, the current vaccines have held up remarkably well.
During the last omicron-driven surge, two vaccine doses were nearly 80% effective against needing a breathing machine or death — and a booster pushed that protection to 94%, federal scientists recently reported.
But only about half of Americans eligible for a third shot have gotten one. And many experts said it was unsustainable to continue asking Americans to get boosted every few months.
A panelist from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggested that the 80% protection from severe disease could become the standard for evaluating the vaccines.
"I think we may have to accept that level of protection and then use other alternative ways to protect individuals with therapeutics and other measures,” said Dr. Amanda Cohn, CDC's chief medical officer.
Presentations at the meeting by government health officials and independent researchers underscored the challenges of predicting when the next major COVID-19 variant might appear.
Trevor Bedford, a disease modeler with the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, said a major new strain like omicron could emerge anywhere from every 1.5 years to once a decade, based on currently available data. Given that unpredictability, researchers will need methods to quickly determine whether current vaccines work against emerging variants.
WHAT’S THE PROCESS FOR UPDATING VACCINES TO ADDRESS NEW VARIANTS?
All three COVID-19 vaccines now used in the U.S. are based on the original coronavirus version that emerged in late 2019. Updating the vaccines will be a complex task, likely requiring coordination between the FDA, manufacturers and global health authorities.
Also read:Pfizer asks US to allow 4th COVID vaccine dose for seniors
To speed the vaccines to market, the FDA relied on research shortcuts to judge effectiveness, mainly looking at their early impact on the immune system's antibody levels. A number of panelists said Wednesday they wanted more rigorous data from studies that track patients over time to see who gets sick or dies.
But that approach would likely be too time consuming.
“We’re looking at a conundrum here in that it’s going to be hard to generate all the data we want in short order when a new variant emerges,” said Dr. Ofer Levy of Harvard Medical School.
A representative for the U.S. Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority laid out the narrow window that manufacturers could face to reformulate, study and mass produce an updated vaccine by September.
“If you’re not on your way to a clinical trial by the beginning of May, I think it’s going to be very difficult to have enough product across manufacturers to meet demand,” said Robert Johnson, deputy assistant secretary of BARDA.
The process for updating annual flu vaccines offers one possible model, as laid out by a representative from the World Health Organization.
Twice a year, WHO experts recommend updates to flu vaccines to target emerging strains. The FDA then brings those recommendations to its own vaccine panel, which votes on whether they make sense for the U.S., setting the stage for manufacturers to tweak their shots and begin mass production.
But COVID-19 hasn’t yet fallen into a predictable pattern like the flu. And as the coronavirus evolves, different strains may become dominant in different regions of the world.
Several experts said they would need more meetings with more data and proposals from the FDA to decide on a strategy.
“We’ve never been here before. We’re all working together to do the best we can and it’s very complex,” said Oveta Fuller of the University of Michigan's Medical School.
India reports first case of XE Covid variant
India on Wednesday reported its first known case of coronavirus variant XE -- a mutant hybrid of two versions of Omicron -- in the western city of Mumbai.
The XE victim, a 50-year-old woman who arrived from South Africa in February, is fully vaccinated against Covid-19 and has shown no severe symptoms so far, the city's civic body, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), said in a statement.
Also read: India blocks 22 YouTube channels
One case of the Kappa variant of Covid-19 has also been detected, according to BMC.
The two cases were detected after samples of as many as 230 Covid patients from the city were sent for genome sequencing, the civic body said.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the XE mutant is more transmissible than any variant of coronavirus. It was first detected in the UK in January.
XE is a mutation of BA.1 and BA.2 Omicron strains, according to the British Medical Journal.
Also read: India soldier killed, 4 workers injured in Kashmir attacks
Meanwhile, India's Covid-19 tally rose to 4,30,30,925 on Wednesday, as 1,086 new cases were registered in 24 hours across the country, according to the federal health ministry data.
Besides, 71 fatalities were recorded since Tuesday morning, taking the Covid death toll in the country to 521,487.
Covid-19: Bangladesh reports 36 new cases, zero death
Bangladesh logged 36 fresh Covid cases in 24 hours till Wednesday morning, taking the total caseload to 19,51,903.
As per the latest government data, the country’s total fatalities remained static at 29,123 as no death was reported during the period.
Also read: Bangladesh reports 36 new Covid cases, no death
The daily positivity rate slightly increased to 0.61 per cent from Tuesday's 0.52 per cent after testing 5,959 samples during the period, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
On Tuesday, the number of infections was lower as 35 new cases were reported with no death.
Besides, the mortality rate remained unchanged at 1.49 per cent.
The recovery rate rose to 96.63 per cent with the recovery of 785 more patients during the 24-hour period.
In March, the country reported 85 Covid-linked deaths and 8,000 new cases while 66,639 patients recovered from the disease, according to DGHS.
Among the 85 deaths during the period, 44 were unvaccinated patients, 11 were vaccinated with the first dose of Covid-19 vaccine, 28 with the second dose and two with the third dose.
Also read: COVID outbreak 'extremely grim' as Shanghai extends lockdown
The country reported first zero Covid-related death in a single day on November 20 last year along with 178 infections since the pandemic broke out in Bangladesh in March 2020.
On January 28, Bangladesh logged its previous highest daily positivity rate at 33.37 per cent reporting 15,440 cases and 20 deaths.
Besides, the country registered the highest daily caseload of 16,230 on July 28 last year, while the highest number of daily fatalities was 264 on August 10 last year.
Bangladesh reports no death from Covid-19, new cases 56
Bangladesh logged 56 fresh Covid cases in 24 hours till Sunday morning, taking the total caseload to 19,51,770.
As per the latest government data, the country’s total fatalities remained unchanged at 29,122 as no death was reported during the period.
On Saturday, 56 new cases were reported with no death.
Read: COVID-19 cases rise in Shanghai with millions under lockdown
The daily positivity rate slightly dropped to 0.79 per cent from Saturday’s 0.88 per cent after testing 7,099 samples during the period, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
Besides, the mortality rate remained unchanged at 1.49 per cent.
The recovery rate rose to 96.50 per cent with the recovery of 596 more patients during the 24-hour period.
The country reported first zero Covid-related death in a single day on November 20 last year along with 178 infections since the pandemic broke out in Bangladesh in March 2020.
Read:Road accidents claim 166 lives, Covid 85 in Bangladesh in March: BHRC
On January 28, Bangladesh logged its previous highest daily positivity rate at 33.37 per cent reporting 15,440 cases and 20 deaths.
Besides, the country registered the highest daily caseload of 16,230 on July 28 last year, while the highest number of daily fatalities was 264 on August 10 last year.
Bangladesh reports 81 new Covid cases, no death
Bangladesh logged 81 fresh Covid cases in 24 hours till Friday morning, taking the total caseload to 19,51,658.
As per the latest government data, the country’s total fatalities remained unchanged at 29,122 as no death was reported during the period.
On Thursday, the number of infections was lower as 73 new cases were reported with no death.
Read: 2nd round of mega Covid vaccination drive extended until April 3: Health Minister
The daily positivity rate increased to 1.09 per cent from Thursday’s 0.78 per cent after testing 7,370 samples during the period, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
Besides, the mortality rate remained unchanged at 1.49 per cent.
The recovery rate rose to 96.44 per cent with the recovery of 893 more patients during the 24-hour period.
Covid situation in March
In March, the country reported 85 Covid-linked deaths and 8,000 new cases while 66,639 patients recovered from the disease, according to DGHS.
Among the 85 deaths during the period, 44 were unvaccinated patients, 11 were vaccinated with the first dose of Covid-19 vaccine, 28 with the second dose and two with the third dose.
On March 27, Bangladesh logged its lowest daily positivity rate at 0.54 per cent reporting 43 cases with zero death.
Read: Covid-19: Bangladesh reports 2 deaths, 72 new cases
The country reported first zero Covid-related death in a single day on November 20 last year along with 178 infections since the pandemic broke out in Bangladesh in March 2020.
On January 28, Bangladesh logged its previous highest daily positivity rate at 33.37 per cent reporting 15,440 cases and 20 deaths.
Besides, the country registered the highest daily caseload of 16,230 on July 28 last year, while the highest number of daily fatalities was 264 on August 10 last year.
Global Covid cases top 475 million
The overall number of Covid cases has surged past 475 million as the pandemic enters into its third year.
According to Johns Hopkins University (JHU), the total case count mounted to 475,483,514 while the death toll from the virus reached 6,104,113 Thursday morning.
The US has recorded 79,844,364 cases so far and 974,827 people have died from the virus in the country, the university data shows.
Read:Covid in Bangladesh: No death reported in 24 hrs
India's Covid-19 tally rose to 43,012,749 on Wednesday, as 1,778 new cases were registered in 24 hours across the country, showed the federal health ministry data.
Besides, 62 deaths from the pandemic were reported since Tuesday morning, taking the total death toll to 516,605.
Meanwhile, Brazil, which has been experiencing a new wave of cases since January last year, registered 29,738,362 cases as of Thursday, while its Covid death toll rose to 658,286.
Situation in Bangladesh
Bangladesh reported one more Covid-linked death with 134 fresh cases in 24 hours till Wednesday morning.
The daily positivity rate rose a bit to 1.27 per cent from Tuesday’s 1.11 per cent after 10,571 samples were tested during the period, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
Read: Covid-19: Bangladesh reports one death, 134 new cases
With the latest numbers, the country’s total fatalities mounted to 29,118 and the caseload to 19,50,980.
Besides, the mortality rate remained unchanged too at 1.49 per cent.
The recovery rate rose to 96.04 per cent with the recovery of 921 more patients during the 24-hour period.
Covid-19: Bangladesh reports one death, 134 new cases
Bangladesh reported one more Covid-linked death with 134 fresh cases in 24 hours till Wednesday morning.
On Tuesday, the country reported 121 fresh cases with no death.
The country reported first zero Covid-related death in a single day on November 20 last year along with 178 infections since the pandemic broke out in Bangladesh in March 2020.
Read: Covid in Bangladesh: No death reported in 24 hrs
The daily positivity rate rose a bit to 1.27 per cent from Tuesday’s 1.11 per cent after testing 10,571 samples during the period, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
The lone death was reported from Dhaka Division and the deceased was a woman, aged between 51-60.
With the latest numbers, the country’s total fatalities mounted to 29,118 while the caseload to 19,50,980.
Besides, the mortality rate remained unchanged too at 1.49 per cent.
Read: Covid-19 in Bangladesh: No new death, 116 fresh cases as positivity stand at 1.06%
The recovery rate rose to 96.04 per cent with the recovery of 921 more patients during the 24-hour period.
On January 28, Bangladesh logged its previous highest daily positivity rate at 33.37 per cent reporting 15,440 cases and 20 deaths.
Besides, the country registered the highest daily caseload of 16,230 on July 28 last year, while the highest number of daily fatalities was 264 on August 10 last year.