Global Covid-19 cases surpass 119 million

The total number of global Covid-19 cases topped 119 million on Saturday amid concern of new virus strains, increasing pressure on nations to speed up the vaccination process, reports UNB.

According to Johns Hopkins University (JHU) the current total global caseload and fatalities stand at 119,023,857 and 2,638,887, respectively.

The US has recorded 29,343,530 cases while about 532,400 people have died in the country since the pandemic began a year ago.

In the US, deaths from Covid-19 are falling again as the nation continues to recover from the devastating winter surge, a trend that experts are cautiously hopeful will accelerate as more vulnerable people are vaccinated, UNB says quoting AP.

While new coronavirus infections and hospitalisations have plummeted, the decline in deaths from a January peak of about 4,500 hasn’t been quite as steep. But, now, after weeks of hovering around 2,000 daily deaths, that figure has dropped to about 1,400 US lives lost each day to Covid.

Brazil has the second highest number of Covid-19 deaths and cases, behind the United States.

The South American country is currently facing a second wave of the pandemic, which has paralysed the health system in most of the country's state capitals, and forced provincial governments to tighten restrictive measures.

Till Saturday morning, the country has registered 11,363,380 cases while the death toll from the virus has mounted to 275,105.

Meanwhile, India’s total case count and deaths stood at 11,308,846 and 158,306 deaths, respectively, as of Saturday.

According to the university data, India holds the third position in terms of cases in the world and 4th position in terms of deaths.

Bangladesh's daily Covid-19 cases have continued to pass the 1,000-mark for the last three days. The country recorded 1,066 new cases in the past 24 hours till Friday.

Thirteen more Covid-19 deaths were reported during the period; the mortality rate stood at 1.53 per cent, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).

The daily percentage of people testing positive for Covid-19 continued to inch back above 5 per cent after a month of a downtrend. The infection rate rose to 6.62 per cent from 5.82 per cent on Thursday.

With the latest figures, the Covid-19 fatalities climbed to 8,515 and the total infections to 555,222, the DGHS said.

However, 1,252 people recovered from Covid-19 during the period.