Dhaka, Jan 5 – The global COVID caseload has crossed 85.6 million, while the deaths have surged to over 1.85 million, according to Johns Hopkins University.
The total number of cases globally stood at 85,637,904 and the death toll climbed to 1,852,079 as of Tuesday morning, as per the latest data released by the university.
The US, which remained the world’s worst-hit country in terms of the number of cases and deaths, is on the brink of breaching the 21 million mark.
The country’s total cases reached 20,805,262, with 353,371 fatalities on Tuesday morning, the university said.
Brazil registered 543 deaths from COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, bringing the national death toll to 196,561, the government announced on Monday.
The country’s Ministry of Health confirmed 20,006 new cases, taking the nationwide count to 7,753,752.
India recorded 10,340,469 cases, while the death toll in the country climbed to 149,649 in the morning, the government said.
Situation in Bangladesh
Bangladesh saw a daily infection rate of 7.52%, with 910 new infections reported until early Monday. The country has recorded 516,929 corona cases so far.
Also, the COVID death toll in Bangladesh rose to 7,650 with 24 new fatalities, bringing the mortality rate to 1.48, the Directorate General of Health Services said.
So far, 3,272,423 tests have been carried out and the overall infection rate stands at 15.80%.
However, 917 more patients recovered in the past 24 hours, taking the overall recovery rate to 89.28%.
Bangladesh reported its first COVID cases on March 8 and the first death on March 18.
The country’s infection number reached the 5,00000-mark on December 20. The death toll exceeded 7,000 on December 12.
Covid-19 Vaccine
Over the weekend, US government officials reported that vaccinations had accelerated significantly. As of Monday, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention said nearly 4.6 million shots had been dispensed in the US, after a slow and uneven start to the campaign, marked by confusion, logistical hurdles and a patchwork of approaches by state and local authorities, reports AP.
Britain, meanwhile, became the first nation to start using the COVID-19 vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University, ramping up its nationwide inoculation campaign amid soaring infection rates blamed on the new variant. Britain’s vaccination programme began on December 8 with the shot developed by Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech.
On Sunday, India, the world’s second-most populous country, authorised its first two COVID-19 vaccines — the Oxford-AstraZeneca one and another developed by an Indian company. The move paves the way for a huge inoculation programme in the nation of 1.4 billion people.
India has confirmed more than 10.3 million cases of the virus, second in the world behind the U.S. It also has reported about 150,000 deaths.
In Bangladesh, Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen on Monday cleared the confusion about the timely delivery of COVID-19 vaccine to Bangladesh, saying it will get vaccine from India timely.
“Decision has been taken at the highest level and that would be implemented. Nobody has to worry or get panicked,” he told reporters sharing the updates they received from the Indian Ministry of External Affairs. – Agencies
