Global Covid cases near 156 million

With new variants of Covid-19 spreading faster than ever before in several nations, the global corona cases surpassed 155.6 million on Friday.

In fact, according to Johns Hopkins University (JHU), the total case count and fatalities now stand at 155,650,258 and 3,251,960, respectively.

The US, the world's worst-hit country in terms of cases and deaths, has so far logged 32,603,943 infections and 580,054 fatalities, respectively, as per the JHU data.

The Centers for Disease Control is now reporting an average of about 350,000 new cases each week, 35,000 hospitalisations and over 4,000 deaths, reports AP.

With Covid-19 deaths, hospitalisations and cases plummeting since January, many states and cities are already moving to ease or lift restrictions on restaurants, bars, theaters and other businesses and talking about getting back to something close to normal this summer.

Brazil registered 2,531 more deaths from Covid-19 in 24 hours, raising the country's death toll to 417,176, the Ministry of Health said on Thursday.

Meanwhile, tests detected 73,559 new Covid-19 cases, taking the national tally to 15,009,023.

Brazil has the world's second-highest Covid-19 death toll, after the United States, and the third-largest outbreak, behind the United States and India.

Meanwhile, India has recorded 21,491, 598 cases as of Friday morning, with 234,083 fatalities.

India’s hospitals are packed with Covid-19 patients and the shortage of oxygen is only intensifying the woes of patients and their relatives.

Eleven people with Covid-19 died on Thursday from a sudden oxygen pressure failure at a government university hospital in the southern town of Chengalpet, possibly from a faulty valve, according to Indian media.

Situation in Bangladesh

Bangladesh on Thursday recorded 41 more deaths from Covid-19 in 24 hours, showing a continuous fall in the fatality rate.

This is the lowest number of Covid deaths in the country after March 28 this year. Bangladesh saw 35 deaths on March 28.

With the new death data, the mortality from coronavirus has risen to 11,796, the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) said in a handout.

Health authorities recorded 1,822 new infections during the period, pushing up the caseload to 7,69,160.

Vaccination Drive

Bangladesh kicked off its vaccination drive on February 7 with Oxford-AstraZeneca doses it acquired from the Serum Institute of India.

Bangladesh signed an agreement with Serum for 30 million doses. But a record number of cases in India has made the delivery of the doses uncertain.

However, DGHS DG Prof ABM Khurshid Alam assured that Bangladesh will get 2.1 million doses of the vaccine by early May.

In the past 24 hours, 43 people have received the first dose and 102,915 have received the second dose of Covid vaccine, a figure which is exactly the same of yesterday, according to the DGHS handout.

So far, a total of 72,48,829 people received jabs whereas 33,13,424 people managed to complete their second dose.

Lockdown extended till May 16

The government has issued a notification extending the ongoing lockdown till May 16 with six fresh directives alongside the existing ones to contain the spread of Covid-19.

According to the notification issued by the Cabinet Division, officials of all government, semi-government autonomous and private organisations, banks and financial institutions have been asked to remain at their respective workstations during the upcoming Eid-ul-Fitr holidays.

Shops and shopping malls will remain open from 10 am to 8 pm maintaining health guidelines. If any violations are seen, the shopping malls and shops will be closed instantly, says the notification.

Inter-district transport services will remain suspended, while intra-district transport services started operations ensuring health guidelines from Thursday.

However, launch and train services will remain suspended.