Global Covid cases top 273 million

People wearing protective face mask practice social distancing while receiving rice from an automated rice ATM distributor amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) spread in Jakarta, Indonesia 4 May 2020.Reuters

Amid a global scare over the new strain of Covid-19, the overall number of coronavirus cases has surged past 273 million, reports UNB.

According to Johns Hopkins University (JHU), the total case count mounted to 273,668,314 while the death toll from the virus reached 5,343,939 Saturday morning.

The US has recorded 50,701,324 cases to date and more than 805,796 people have died so far from the virus in the country, as per the university data.

Brazil, which has been experiencing a new wave of cases since January, registered 22,204,941 cases as of Friday, while its Covid death toll rose to 617,395.

India's Covid-19 tally rose to 34,726,049 on Friday, as 7,447 new cases were registered in 24 hours across the country, as per the federal health ministry's data.

Besides, 391 deaths from the pandemic since Thursday morning took the total death toll to 476,869.

Ten new cases of the Omicron variant were logged in India's capital Friday, taking the country's case tally of the new variant to 98.

Situation in Bangladesh

Bangladesh reported two more Covid-related deaths with 191 fresh cases in 24 hours till Friday morning.

With the latest figures, the daily case positivity rate increased to 1.17 per cent from Thursday’s 1.02 per cent, said the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).

The total fatalities rose to 28,043 while the caseload mounted to 1,580,750 with the fresh ones.

On December 9, Bangladesh again logged zero Covid-related death after nearly three weeks as the pandemic is apparently showing signs of easing.

The country reported this year’s first zero Covid-related death in a single day on 20 November along with 178 infections since the pandemic broke out in Bangladesh in March 2020.

Bangladesh reported the highest number of daily fatalities of 264 on 5 August this year, while the highest daily caseload was 16,230 on 28 July this year.

So far, a total of 1,545,259 Covid-19 infected people have recovered.