COVID-19: Global cases surge past 49m

Amid the surge in COVID-19 cases in Europe and the United States, the caseload in the world surged past 49 million on Saturday, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

The number of global COVID-19 infections rose to 49,247,980 and the death toll climbed to 1,241,981 as of Saturday morning, reports news agency UNB.

The US has the highest case tally in the world, as the country recorded 9,732,947 cases with 236,064 fatalities.

The United States set a new record on Friday as it surpassed 125,000 daily coronavirus infections while 1,210 people died on the same day.

Besides, European countries continue to report record-high single-day case totals as France reported 57,837 new cases with 360 deaths on Friday, Italy recorded 34,502 new cases with 502 fatalities.

The UK has registered 24,164 new cases on Friday while 378 people died during this period.

Russia has confirmed a record number of 20,582 new COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, taking its total to 1,733,440, the country’s COVID-19 response centre said in a statement Friday.

Meanwhile, 378 new deaths were reported, taking the nationwide count to 29,887.

Moscow, the country’s worst-hit region, reported 6,253 new cases, taking its tally of infections to 456,689, the response centre said.

According to the statement, 1,296,124 people have recovered, including 16,955 over the past day.

So far, over 63.5 million tests have been conducted across the country.

Meanwhile, Brazil registered 18,862 new COVID-19 cases over the past 24 hours, bringing the national count to 5,631,181, its health ministry said Friday.

Over the same period, 279 more deaths from the disease were reported, raising the national death toll to 162,015.

The health ministry reported that the latest data are incomplete, because due to technical problems, the states of Sao Paulo (the country’s most affected region by the pandemic), Santa Catarina, Amazonas, Tocantins and Amapa did not update the data on Friday.

Brazil currently ranks second in the world in terms of COVID-19 deaths, only behind the United States, and third in terms of confirmed cases, following the United States and India.

India, the second worst hit country in the number of recorded cases at 84,11,724 while 124,985 people have died so far from COVID-19 till Saturday morning.

Coronavirus cases were first reported in China in December last year and the World Health Organisation declared it a pandemic in March. There is currently no vaccine for the virus.

The country registered 15 more deaths and 1469 new cases of COVID-19 in previous 24 hours on Friday raising the death toll to 6,036.

The health authorities confirmed 417,475 coronavirus cases so far while 331,197 patients have recovered from the disease.

The fatality rate in Bangladesh is 1.45 per cent, the Directorate General of Health Services said.

Bangladesh reported its first cases on 8 March. The number of cases reached the 300,000-mark on 26 August. The first death was reported on 18 March and the death toll exceeded 5,000 on 22 September.