With new variants of Covid-19 spreading faster than ever before in several parts of the world, the global corona cases are now approaching 173 million. According to Johns Hopkins University (JHU), the total global case count reached 172,859, 512 while the death toll climbed to 3,718,408 on Sunday morning. The US, the world's worst-hit country in terms of cases and deaths, have recorded 33,057,380 cases with 597,377 fatalities to date, as per the JHU data. Neighbouring India’s total Covid case count is fast approaching the 29-million mark. The country’s caseload and fatalities stand at 28,694, 879 and 344,082, respectively, as of Sunday morning. Brazil registered 1,689 more deaths from Covid-19 in the past 24 hours, bringing the nationwide tally to 472,531, the country’s health ministry said on Saturday. READ: Global Covid deaths top 3.5 million A total of 66,017 new infections were detected, raising the caseload to 16,907,425, the ministry said. Brazil has the world's second highest Covid-19 death toll, after the United States, and the third largest caseload, behind the United States and India. Situation in Bangladesh As Coronavirus-related deaths and infections keep growing in Bangladesh, the country recorded 43 more deaths in the past 24 hours till Saturday morning. Besides, 1,447 new cases were registered during the period, taking the country's caseload to 809,314. With the latest death toll, the total number of fatalities rose to 12,801. READ: Global Covid-19 cases hit 168 million Bangladesh reported its first Covid cases on March 8 last year and the first death on the 18th of that month. Lockdown in districts Due to the recent rise in Covid infections in frontier districts, district administrations have imposed lockdowns in Rajshahi, Khulna, Satkhira, Chapainawabganj, Teknaf upazila, five Rohingya camps and parts of Naogaon, Noakhali districts to curb the transmission of the virus. The district administrations have been given the authority to enforce lockdowns in their areas if the Covid-19 situation worsens. Vaccination drive Bangladesh launched its vaccination drive on February 7 with Oxford-AstraZeneca doses bought from India's Serum Institute. Covid-19: Bangladesh registers 43 more deaths; positivity rate hits 11.03% So far, four vaccines – Oxford-AstraZeneca (Covishield), Sputnik-V, Sinopharm, and Pfizer-BioNTech – have got the authorisation for emergency use in the country. Meanwhile, seven million doses of Oxford-AstraZeneca Covishield vaccine reached Bangladesh, and the governments of India and China gave 3.2 million doses and 500,000 doses of coronavirus vaccine as gifts. However, the country, the prime recipient of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines, has suspended the registration for Covid-19 jabs due to vaccine shortage amid a delay in the arrival of shipments from India.

 With the new variants of Covid-19 spreading faster than ever before in several nations, the global corona cases have now topped 170 million.   According to Johns Hopkins University (JHU), the total case count and fatalities surged to 170,188,075 and 3,537,835, respectively, till Monday morning.   Until date, 1,864,810,057  (1.86 billion) vaccine doses have been administered across the world.   The US, the world's worst-hit country in terms of cases and deaths, has so far logged 33,258,623 infections and 594,430 fatalities, respectively, as per the JHU data.   Brazil on Sunday reported 874 more deaths from COVID-19, raising the national count to 461,931, the Ministry of Health said.   A total of 43,520 more infections were detected, raising the nationwide tally to 16,515,120, the ministry said.   Brazil has the world's second highest COVID-19 death toll, after the United States, and the third largest caseload, following the United States and India.   Meanwhile, India has recorded 27,894, 800 cases as of Monday morning, with 325,972 fatalities.   India’s hospitals are packed with Covid-19 patients and the shortage of oxygen is only intensifying the woes of patients and their relatives. Also read: Covid-19: 34 more die in Bangladesh as positivity rate jumps to 10.11%   Situation in Bangladesh   As the Covid-19 still remains grim in Bangladesh, it recorded 34 more Coronavirus-related deaths and 1,444 new cases in 24 hours until Sunday morning.   The latest figures pushed up the total fatalities to 12,583.   The new infections were detected after carrying out 14,277 sample tests, as the daily infection rate jumped above 10 percent once again.   Bangladesh reported its first coronavirus cases on March 8 last year and the first death on the 18th of that month.   Also read: Bangladesh extends lockdown until June 6 The government has extended the ongoing lockdown by another week until June 6 to stem the spread of Coronavirus.   On Sunday, the Cabinet Division issued a circular in this regard.     Vaccination Drive   Bangladesh kicked off its vaccination drive on February 7 with Oxford-AstraZeneca doses it acquired from the Serum Institute of India.   Bangladesh signed an agreement with Serum for 30 million doses. But a record number of cases in India has made the delivery of the doses uncertain.   However, DGHS DG Prof ABM Khurshid Alam has said that Bangladesh will get 2.1 million doses of the vaccine by early May.   In the past 24 hours, 38 people have received the first dose and 83,540 have received the second dose of Covid vaccine, according to the DGHS handout.   Also Read:Covid vaccine stock running out: DGHS   So far, a total of 72,48,829 people have received the vaccine, of which 31,06709 got their second dose.