Health Minister Zahid Maleque on Wednesday said the country is now seeing an upward trend in Covid infections and the government is ready to tackle the situation. The Minister made this remark while talking to reporters after attending the Annual Performance Agreement signing ceremony as the chief guest at the secretariat. Zahid said that they held a meeting last week to contain the spread of the virus and gave some directives including wearing masks in public places. Read:NTAC recommends avoiding public gatherings to fight Covid surge “We’re requesting everyone to take vaccines and wear masks everywhere including in offices, educational institutions, buses and trains. We hope that the people will pay heed to our call,” he said. The minister added that although the Covid-19 infection rate was negligible 15 days ago it has started to increase once again. “The government alone can’t tackle the situation. Rather, they need people’s cooperation to keep the Covid-19 situation under control,” he said.

The rates of hospitalisation and death caused by Covid-19 might see a rise in the next four or five days, said Health Minister Zahid Maleque on Wednesday. “There were around 250 Covid patients in hospitals on average a week ago and now it’s around 1000. The hospitalisation will rise further, and also deaths. Health workers brace for troubles,” the minister told a programme at BCPS auditorium in the capital. The Covid-19 infection rate was 9 per cent yesterday which rose to 11 per cent today, he said, adding that the number of new patients was 200-250 barely 10-15 days ago but now it is around 3,000. READ: Covid surge in Bangladesh: Daily positivity rate jumps to 6.78% As the virus is spreading at an alarming rate, instructions have been given to keep 20,000 additional hospital beds ready as a preparation, said Zahid Maleque.  “We want the Covid situation not to worsen in Bangladesh as in Europe and the USA. So, the government will enforce an 11-point restriction from tomorrow,” he said. Bangladesh reported 2,916 more cases of infections and another four deaths in 24 hours till Wednesday morning with a continuous rise in Covid-19 cases. With the fresh cases reported after testing 24,705 samples, the daily positivity rate kept increasing to 11.68 per cent from Tuesday’s 8.97 per cent during the 24-hour period, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS). The country last logged 3,167 cases on September 3, last year along with 70 deaths in 24 hours while the positivity rate was 10.76 per cent. The fresh numbers took the country’s total fatalities to 28,111 while the caseload mounted to 16, 01,305 on Wednesday. Among the new deceased, two were men and two women while three of the deaths were reported from Dhaka division and another from Chattogram. The mortality rate remained unchanged at 1.76 per cent during the period. READ: Covid surge in Bangladesh: 5,000 get infected in just one week The recovery rate increased to 97.90 per cent with the recovery of 266 more patients during the 24-hour period. Meanwhile, Bangladesh’s total tally of Omicron cases reached 30 with detection of nine more cases on Monday, according to GISAID, a global initiative on sharing all influenza data.

Coronavirus cases fueled by the highly transmissible omicron variant are rocketing through India, prompting the federal government and states to swiftly reintroduce a string of restrictions. Night curfews are back. Restaurants and bars are running at half their capacity. Some states have closed schools and movie theaters. Large gatherings are to be downsized. But India’s political leaders are busy on the campaign trail ahead of crucial state polls, addressing packed rallies of tens of thousands of people, many without masks. The scenes are strikingly similar to last year’s election season, when the delta variant ravaged the country and made India one of the world’s worst-hit countries. Some political parties have begun to curtail their campaigns and halt a few rallies, but health experts worry that the lessons learned last year have already been forgotten. READ: Impact of devastating Indian virus surge spreads to politics “The highly transmissible omicron variant chases and catches you. But our politicians are out there to welcome it with a hug,” said Dr. T. Jacob John, an Indian virologist. “I fear it is beginning to look a lot like last year.” A devastating surge of infections tore through India last year. It was partly fed by large crowds at election rallies, where politicians, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, often appeared without masks and addressed teeming crowds. That surge left the country’s health system battered, with people begging for oxygen and hospital beds. Crematoriums ran out of space. Daily deaths crossed 4,000 during the peak of the crisis, with at least 200,000 people dying between March and May, a number widely believed to be a vast undercount. Health officials say the new surge is causing fewer deaths and many cases are asymptomatic. But they warn against taking the omicron variant too lightly, and say that numerous cases, even if milder, could still pressure the country’s fragile health system. Overall, new daily cases have increased nearly fourfold in the last week. Hospital admissions are rising and medical staff in some states have been asked to cut short their winter holidays. Cities are experiencing a massive surge, with Mumbai, India’s financial capital, surpassing its previous highest daily count. New COVID-19 cases in five states immersed in election campaigning — Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur — have shot up. READ: Covid-19: Indian man has taken at least eight Covid jabs On Saturday, the health ministry said more than 141,986 cases were reported in the previous 24 hours, nearly a 21% increase from the previous day. Health experts say increased social contact at packed election rallies is feeding the virus spread. “The transmission chains that started at the beginning of the year due to these rallies will take months to burn out,” John, the virologist, said. Over the past few weeks, Modi has addressed huge gatherings in several cities, particularly in Uttar Pradesh, the country’s most populous state which is ruled by his Bharatiya Janata Party. The party’s political opponents have also hit the campaign trail, flouting health guidelines. Earlier this week, the Congress party organized a marathon in which thousands of people ran without masks and were packed so tightly that they collapsed onto each other. The chief minister of New Delhi, Arvind Kejriwal, contracted the virus after he was seen maskless while leading political rallies in multiple states. With health experts warning of a rapid growth in infections, and data suggesting they are spreading faster than during the peak of last year’s surge, several political parties have started a course correction. The Congress party said it is stopping political rallies in Uttar Pradesh and switching to virtual campaigning. A few other parties, including Modi's, have followed suit. It's unclear, however, whether they will cancel all future rallies. The polls are scheduled to begin on Feb. 10 and end on March 7. Results will be declared on March 10. On Wednesday, V.K. Paul, a doctor working with the government on its coronavirus response, said it was likely that “systems will be overwhelmed." He said restricting political activities and rallies was a decision the Election Commission needed to make. On Saturday, the Election Commission, which had so far deflected that call by saying political parties wanted the rallies to go forward, gave in to the mounting pressure. The commission barred all physical rallies and roadshows for one week and said a decision to impose restrictions throughout the entire campaign will be only taken after a Jan. 15 review. S.Y. Quraishi, a former head of the commission, said campaigning could be banned or restricted for the entire period if the commission wanted to do so. “But they lack the will,” Quraishi said. “What's the point in banning rallies after the virus has already spread through the entire country?” John, the virologist, said officials in states with upcoming elections are being inconsistent by imposing curfews and restrictions on everyday gatherings but allowing large election rallies to be held. “The government has once again sent out a message that politics is more important than health,” he said.

The overall number of global coronavirus cases has surged past 287 million with European countries tightening Covid-19 restrictions as Omicron spreads. According to Johns Hopkins University (JHU), the total case count mounted to 287,931,555 while the death toll from the virus reached 5,435,753 Saturday morning. The US has recorded 54,570,527 cases so far and more than 825,536 people have died from the virus in the country, the university data shows. Brazil, which has been experiencing a new wave of cases since January, registered 22,291,839 cases as of Friday, while its Covid death toll rose to 619,334. India's Covid-19 tally rose to 34,838,804 on Saturday with 16,764 new cases as per the health ministry data. Besides, as many as 220 deaths due to the pandemic were reported since Friday morning took the total death toll to 481,080. READ: Global covid cases hit new high amid Omicron surge Meanwhile, the country's Omicron tally reached 1,270 on Friday and at least 374 have recovered, the health ministry said. Covid situation in Bangladesh Bangladesh logged two Covid-linked deaths with 512 fresh infections in 24 hours till Friday morning. With the detection of the fresh cases after testing 18,522 samples, the daily-case positivity rate increased to 2.74 per cent from Thursday’s 2.25 per cent during the period, said the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS). The fresh numbers reported on Friday took the country’s total fatalities to 28,072 while the caseload mounted to 15,85,539. Meanwhile, the mortality rate remained static at 1.77 per cent during the period. Besides, the recovery rate declined to 97.70 per cent with the recovery of 290 more patients during the 24-hour period. Bangladesh reported daily Covid cases above 500 after two months. On October 13, the country logged 518 new Covid cases with 17 deaths. Meanwhile, three more Covid cases of the Omicron variant have been detected in Bangladesh, raising the total tally to seven, according to GISAID, a global initiative on sharing all influenza data, shared the results on Wednesday. READ: Global Covid: Cases top 286 million with Omicron surge On December 9, Bangladesh again logged zero Covid-related death after nearly three weeks as the pandemic was apparently showing signs of easing. The country reported this year’s first zero Covid death in a single day on November 20 along with 178 infections since the pandemic broke out in Bangladesh in March 2020. Bangladesh reported the highest number of daily fatalities of 264 on August 5 this year, while the highest daily caseload was 16,230 on July 28 this year.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa announced Sunday that his country will return to stricter lockdown measures in the face of a sharp rise in COVID-19 cases that indicate the virus is “surging again” in Africa’s worst-affected nation. Positive cases in South Africa in the past seven days were 31% higher than the week before, and 66% higher than the week before that, Ramaphosa said in a live TV address. He said some parts of the country, including the commercial hub Johannesburg and the capital city Pretoria, were now in “a third wave.” “We do not yet know how severe this wave will be or for how long it will last,” Ramaphosa said. In response, Ramaphosa said that from Monday the nighttime curfew would be extended by an hour to start at 11 p.m. until 4 a.m. A maximum of 100 people would be allowed at indoor social gatherings and no more than 250 at an outdoors gathering. The number of people attending funerals will be limited to 100 people and after-funeral gatherings were banned completely, Ramaphosa said. Nonessential businesses must close by 10 p.m. “We have tended to become complacent,” Ramaphosa said, warning virus infections were “surging again” at a time when the country moves into its winter months and people were more likely to gather together indoors, likely further increasing infections. South Africa’s decision to go back to a stricter lockdown reinforces — as the crisis in India has already done so starkly — how the global pandemic is far from over. READ: South African variant found in 81% Covid-19 samples since third week of March “We have seen in other countries the tragic consequences of leaving the virus to spread unchecked,” Ramaphosa said. “We cannot let our guard down.” South Africa has more than 1.6 million confirmed COVID-19 cases and more than 56,000 deaths, more than 30% of the cases and 40% of the deaths recorded by all of Africa’s 54 countries, according to the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. South Africa recorded 4,515 new cases over the past 24 hours and Ramaphosa said the “positivity rate” among tests conducted was now “a cause for concern.” South Africa had been under lockdown level one, the lowest of its five levels, but was now reverting to an “adjusted level two,” Ramaphosa announced. Authorities did stop short of reimposing the strict measures like limits on people’s movements during the day and a ban on the sales of alcohol and tobacco products that were in place at times last year. South Africa has seen two previous surges in infections, the first in the middle of last year and a second, much worse wave in December and January, when the emergence of a variant pushed infections and deaths to higher levels than the first surge. The virus was currently following “the same trajectory” as those waves, Ramaphosa said. Experts have warned that this wave, arriving with the Southern Hemisphere winter, might be even worse. The surge in cases also cast more attention on South Africa’s lagging vaccine rollout. Only around 1.5% of the country’s 60 million people have received a vaccine. Health workers were the No. 1 priority but less than 500,000 of the 1.2 million health workers have been vaccinated with the Johnson & Johnson one-dose shot. South Africa only began vaccinating its elderly citizens two weeks ago. In total, 963,000 South Africans had received a vaccine by Sunday, the government said, although half of those have only received the first of two required doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. READ: South Africa scraps AstraZeneca vaccine, will give J&J jabs South Africa has “secured” more than 50 million vaccines, Ramaphosa said, but currently has only 1.3 million in the country. More Pfizer-BioNTech doses are expected to arrive next week, and weekly after that, he said. South Africa hopes to vaccinate around 40 million people by the end of the year, a target that looks increasingly unlikely.

Two southern states in India became the latest to declare lockdowns, as coronavirus cases surge at breakneck speed across the country and pressure mounts on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government to implement a nationwide shutdown. At over 300,000, Karnataka’s capital of Bengaluru has the highest active caseload of any Indian city. But experts warn the worst is still ahead as India’s third largest city buckles under oxygen shortages, overrun hospitals and crowded crematoriums. In Tamil Nadu state, the lockdown announcement followed a daily record of more than 26,000 cases on Friday. Infections have swelled in India since February in a disastrous turn blamed on more contagious variants as well as government decisions to allow massive crowds to gather for religious festivals and political rallies. On Saturday, India reported 401,078 confirmed cases, including a record high of 4,187 deaths. Overall, India has more than 21.8 million confirmed infections and nearly 240,000 deaths. Experts say even those dramatic tolls are undercounts. Also read: India's disaster hangs over countries facing COVID-19 surges One doctor in Bengaluru said he’s had to reject patients “left, right and center” as his hospital struggled to find more oxygen. “The problem is the demand is so high that we need constant oxygen,” Dr. Sanjay Gururaj, the medical director at Shanti Hospital and Research Center, said. The hospital is sending a truck twice a day to oxygen plants on the outskirts of the city to bring back 12 jumbo oxygen cylinders. “In normal times, this would have lasted over two weeks - now, it lasts just over a day,” he added. The state’s oxygen shortages prompted the high court on Wednesday to order the federal government to increase the daily liquid medical oxygen supplied to Karnataka. The ruling came after 24 COVID-19 patients died in a government hospital on Monday. It’s unclear how many of them died due to the lack of oxygen, but an investigation is ongoing. Experts caution that the surge in Bengaluru is fast eclipsing other hard-hit cities like the capital, New Delhi, and Mumbai. Cases have increased 100-fold since February, said Murad Banaji, a mathematician modeling COVID-19 growth in India, citing official data. Test positivity has jumped to over 30%, which indicates the infection is much more widespread than confirmed figures, he added. “Disaster was looming by early March, when cases started to shoot up,” he said. “Bangalore is more than a ticking time bomb right now - it is in the middle of an explosion.” Bengaluru was previously known as Bangalore. Much of the focus in recent weeks has been on northern India, led by New Delhi, where television stations have broadcast images of patients lying on stretchers outside hospitals and of mass funeral pyres that burn throughout the night. The situation unfurling in Karnataka has thrown attention to other southern states also battling a rise in cases. Daily cases have breached the 20,000 mark for the past three days in Andhra Pradesh state, leading to new restrictions there. Kerala, which emerged as a blueprint for tackling the pandemic last year, began a lockdown on Saturday. With daily cases crossing 40,000, the state is aggressively boosting resources, including converting hundreds of industrial oxygen cylinders into medical oxygen, said Dr. Amar Fetle, the state’s officer for COVID-19. “The magnitude of cases from last year to now is vastly different,” he said, adding that increasing numbers have meant more hospitalizations and more strain on health care systems, with hospitals running nearly full. “It’s become a race between occupancy and how fast we can add beds. We’re trying to stay ahead of the virus as best as we can.” It’s clear infections are rapidly rising across the southern region, but there has been “less visible outcry” than in the north because of relatively better health infrastructure and government initiatives that address problems at the community level, said Jacob John, professor of community medicine at Christian Medical College, Vellore. Also read: India's virus surge pressures Modi to impose strict lockdown But while the virus has ripped through large cities in waves, smaller towns and villages, where health care is less accessible, are now exposed. “These places are quickly getting affected, which means we may not have sustained the worst yet in south India,” he said.

Japan’s department stores, bars and theaters shuttered Sunday as part of emergency measures to slow a surge in infections. The 17-day restrictions are declared for Tokyo, Kyoto, Hyogo and Osaka, ahead of the “Golden Week” holidays, when Japanese usually travel extensively. There’s doubt about the effectiveness of the effort, which focuses on eateries and theme parks staying closed or limiting hours. Trains and streets remain as packed as ever, and schools will stay open. Japan has already declared three emergencies over the coronavirus. The vaccine rollout has been slow, with barely 1% of its population inoculated. Also read: Japan to start releasing Fukushima water into sea in 2 years One setback is that Japan requires additional testing for vaccines approved overseas, and only the Pfizer vaccine is now in use. Experts say the unfolding wave of infections includes more deadly variants. Japan has attributed about 10,000 deaths to COVID-19, among the worst in Asia. A domestically produced vaccine is not expected until next year or 2023.