Dhaka, Mar 08 – The death toll from Covid-19 in the world topped 2,593,073 as of Monday, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University (JHU).
The total caseload globally reached 116,822,839 as per the university data. The US which remains the world’s worst-hit country has recorded 28, 991,680 cases while the death toll from the virus mounted to 524,987 as of today.
Brazil reported an accumulative 11,019,344 COVID-19 cases as of Sunday amid a second wave of the outbreak of the disease, the Brazilian Ministry of Health said.
Meanwhile, a total of 1,086 people died in the last 24 hours, a record for a Sunday, bringing the national death toll to 265,411, the ministry said.
India has registered 11,210,799 cases as of Monday morning and the death toll from the virus reached 157,756.
Situation in Bangladesh
Bangladesh’s coronavirus caseload rose to 550,330 on Sunday after the health authorities confirmed 606 new cases in the last 24 hours.
Eleven Covid-19 related deaths were confirmed, pushing up the local fatalities to 8,462.
The Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) said 1,037 people recovered from the virus infections during this period.
Bangladesh reported its first cases on March 8 and the first death on March 18.
Meanwhile, the daily infection rate jumped to 4.3 percent from 4.13 percent on Saturday.
But the mortality rate remained unchanged at 1.54 percent for the past few days, the DGHS said in a handout. So far, 503,003 patients (91.4 percent) have recovered from Covid-19.
Authorities have so far tested 41,46,205 samples, including 14,092 in the past 24 hours.
Vaccination drive in Bangladesh
Bangladesh launched its nationwide Covid-19 vaccination drive on February 7.
By Sunday, 3,682,152 people received the first dose of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine. The second dose has to be taken between 8 and 12 weeks of the first one.
The government is providing the vaccine for free. It signed an agreement with India’s Serum Institute for 30 million doses of the vaccine.
The institute will provide five million doses every month between January and June.
People who are 40 or above can register for getting vaccinated at www.surokkha.gov.bd as the on-spot registration system has been revoked.
Besides, Health Minister Zahid Maleque said that the age limit for getting the coronavirus vaccine will be revised once more vaccine doses are available in the country. – Agencies
