Global Covid-19 cases near 238 million

Children wearing protective face masks sit in a classroom at a primary school, as Austrian schools reopen for pupils aged roughly six to 14, during the global coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Brunn am Gebirge, Austria 18 May 2020.Reuters

The overall number of global Covid cases is fast approaching 238 million even with mass inoculations underway in several countries.

According to Johns Hopkins University (JHU), the total case count mounted to 237,515, 633 while the death tally from the virus reached 4,846,717 on Sunday morning.

The US has recorded 44,317, 464 cases to date and more than 712,984 people have died so far from the virus in the country, as per the university data.

Brazil, which has the world’s second-highest death toll from COVID-19 behind the United States, saw its death toll exceed 600,000 on Friday.

According to the latest data from the Ministry of Health, the South American nation logged 600,830 deaths and 21,567,181 cases in the last 24 hours.

India’s COVID-19 tally rose to 33,935,309 on Saturday, as 19,740 new cases were registered during the past 24 hours across the country, showed the federal health ministry’s latest data.

Besides, 248 more deaths were recorded since Friday morning, taking the death toll to 450,375.

Situation in Bangladesh

Covid-19 killed 20 more people in Bangladesh and infected 415 others in 24 hours till Saturday morning.

On Friday, the single-day death toll fell to seven, the lowest in eight months, as the country reported 645 cases on the day.

With the fresh numbers, the Covid-19 fatalities reached 27,674 in Bangladesh while the caseload mounted to 1,561,878, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).

The fresh cases were detected after testing 16,925 samples.

With this, the daily-case positivity rate declined slightly to 2.45 per cent from Friday’s 2.77 per cent, said the DGHS.

Recording below 5 per cent positivity rate for 16 consecutive days, Bangladesh has earned the eligibility for mass unlocking, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) standards.

However, the country eased its lockdown restrictions on 11 August, even though public health experts warned of Delta variant’s spread.

However, the mortality rate remained static at 1.77 per cent.

The recovery rate slightly rose to 97.52 per cent with the recovery of 543 more patients during this time.

So far, 1,523,134 people have recovered from the deadly virus infections, the DGHS added.