The overall number of Covid cases has surpassed 261 million amid concern after detection of new variant of coronavirus Omicron  in some countries. According to Johns Hopkins University (JHU), the total case count mounted to 261,434,076 while the death toll from the virus reached 5,199,349 on Monday morning. The US has recorded 48,229,210 cases to date and more than 776,639 people have died so far from the virus in the country, as per the university data. Read: Why WHO skipped ‘nu,’ ‘xi’ for new COVID variant Brazil, which has been experiencing a new wave of cases since January, has registered 22,080,906, cases so far, while its Covid death toll rose to 614,278. India's COVID-19 tally rose to 34,572,523 on Sunday, as 8,774 new cases were registered during the past 24 hours across the country, showed the federal health ministry's latest data. Besides, as many as 621 deaths due to the pandemic since Saturday morning took the total death toll to 468,554. Russia registered 33,548 new coronavirus cases over the past 24 hours, taking the nationwide tally to 9,570,373, the official monitoring and response center said Sunday. The nationwide death toll grew by 1,224 to 272,755, while the number of recoveries increased by 30,646 to 8,268,111. Meanwhile, World Health Organization (WHO) said on Sunday that it's not yet clear whether Omicron is more easily spread from person to person compared to other variants, even though the number of people testing positive has risen in South Africa where this variant was involved. It's also not yet clear whether Omicron causes more severe disease, but preliminary data suggests that there are increasing rates of hospitalization in South Africa, which however may be due to increasing overall numbers of people becoming infected, reports Xinhua. WHO classified on Friday the latest variant B.1.1.529 of SARS-CoV-2 virus, now with the name Omicron, as a ‘Variant of Concern’ (VOC). Situation in Bangladesh Bangladesh reported three more Covid-linked deaths along with 205 fresh cases in 24 hours till Sunday morning. With the latest cases, the daily-case positivity rate declined to 1.03 per cent from Saturday’s 1.15 per cent, said the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS). With the fresh numbers, the total fatalities rose to 27,978 while the caseload mounted to 15,75,784. Among the deceased, one was a woman and two men. Two of the deceased were from Dhaka division while the remaining one from Chattogram division. However, the mortality rate remained static at 1.78 per cent. Read: What we know and don’t know on new COVID variant The fresh cases were detected after testing 19,525 samples, the DGHS added. Besides, the recovery rate increased to 97.75 per cent with the recovery of 299 more patients during the 24-hour period. On November 20, Bangladesh logged this year’s first zero Covid-linked deaths with 178 cases. So far, 3,61,88,968 people have fully been vaccinated in the country while 5,88,72,031 received the first dose as of Saturday, according to the DGHS. However, Public health experts fear a slow pace of vaccination, waning vaccine immunity, sheer disregard for Covid safety protocols, reopening of schools and increased travel may set the stage for another Covid wave in Bangladesh -- a trend many European countries are witnessing now.