Global Covid situation worsening as cases near 198 million
PBC News: The overall number of global Covid cases is fast approaching 198 million, as the world continues to battle against the devastating second wave of the pandemic.
Although the situation in Europe is improving, globally it is worsening as the Delta variant of Covid-19 has now been detected in 124 territories worldwide, says the World Health Organization (WHO).
According to the US-based Johns Hopkins University (JHU), the total case count mounted to 197,767, 859 while the death toll from the virus reached 4,215,888 on Sunday morning.
So far, 4,078,901,841 vaccine doses have been administered across the world.
The US, which is the world’s worst-hit country in terms of both cases and deaths, has so far logged 34,975,540 cases. Besides, 613,135 people have lost their lives in the US to date, as per the JHU data.
Brazil registered 910 more Covid-19 deaths in the past 24 hours, raising its national death toll to 556,370, the health ministry said on Saturday.
Meanwhile, the total caseload rose to 19,917,855 after 37,582 new cases were detected.
India’s Covid-19 tally rose to 31,613,993 on Saturday as 41,649 new cases were registered during the past 24 hours across the country, showed the federal health ministry’s latest data.
Besides, as many as 593 deaths due to the pandemic since Friday morning took the total death toll to 423,810.
Situation in Bangladesh
As health authorities scramble to prevent the spread of the Delta variant, Bangladesh added 218 fatalities to its national tally on Saturday.
The country registered over 200 single-day fatalities for the last six days as it is fighting a horrific wave of the pandemic that overwhelmed its healthcare systems.
The country recorded 9,369 new cases on Saturday after testing 30,980 samples, and reported the highest daily Covid-19 fatality number – 258 – on July 27 and 16,230 infections the next day, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
There have been 1,249,484 positive cases and 20,685 coronavirus-related deaths here since the pandemic began, the DGHS said.
Astrazeneca’s fresh rollout
On a positive note, Bangladesh will resume vaccination with Astrazeneca shots within the next few days, said Health Minister Zahid Maleque.
“We’ll resume vaccination with Astrazeneca jabs within the next 2-1 days. Those who failed to take the second dose after getting the first one will be able to get it now,” he said.
He said the government has an overall stock of 2 crore 60 lakh vaccine doses now.
Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen and Health Minister Zahid Maleque on Saturday received the second consignment of AstraZeneca vaccine doses from Japan under the COVAX facility.
The second consignment contains 7,81,320 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine.
A cargo flight of Cathay Pacific that carried the vaccine doses from Japan landed at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport at 3:15 pm.
The third consignment that will contain 6,16,780 doses of the vaccine is scheduled to arrive here on August 3.
