Covid-19: Global cases near 210 million

The global Covid-19 caseload is fast nearing 210 million as the highly contagious Delta variant continues to devastate several countries even with mass inoculations underway.

The total caseload and fatalities from the virus stand at 209,934,849 and 4,402,002 respectively, as of Friday morning, according to Johns Hopkins University (JHU).

So far, 4,824,375,876 Covid vaccine doses have been administered across the globe, as per the university data.

More than 4.4 million Covid cases and 66,000 deaths were reported worldwide in the past week as Covid-19 is continuing to spread around the world, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday.

The number of new infections in seven days surpassed last week's number by 2 per cent, while the mortality rate was roughly flat, the UN agency added.

The US has logged 37,293,969 cases and 625,166 deaths to date, according to the JHU data. The death toll in the United States is the highest in the world.

Brazil currently has the world's second-highest pandemic death toll after the United States and the third-largest caseload after the United States and India.

The country has recorded 20,494,212 cases with 572,641 fatalities so far, according to the health ministry.

The third worst-hit country, India's Covid-19 tally rose to 32,322,258 on Thursday, as 36,401 new cases were registered during the past 24 hours across the country, as per the health ministry's data.

Besides, as many as 530 deaths were reported due to the pandemic since Monday morning, taking the total death toll to 433,049.

India is likely to have its indigenous Covid-19 vaccine for children by September, Director of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)'s National Institute of Virology (Pune) Priya Abraham said.

Abraham's remarks came amid the ongoing phase II and III trials of Covaxin for the 2-18 age groups.

Situation in Bangladesh

Bangladesh logged 159 more coronavirus-related deaths and 6,566 fresh infections in 24 hours till Wednesday morning, in a decreasing trend in both fatalities and cases even though concerns remained over the virulent Delta variant of the virus.

The country has been seeing fatalities below 200 for the last seven days, a slight improvement from the July 25-August 13 period when daily deaths were recorded over 200.

The fresh numbers took the country’s total fatalities to 24,874 and the cases to 1,447, 210, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS)

The new cases were detected after testing 37,226 samples, which lowered the case positivity rate to 17.64 per cent, still much higher than that of the WHO recommendation of bringing it below 5 per cent.

Meanwhile, the case fatality rate remained static at 1.72 per cent.