Global Covid cases surpass 196 million

Coronavirus cases were first reported in China in December last year and it was declared a pandemic in March. File photo. AP

Dhaka, July 30 -- The overall number of global Covid cases has now surpassed the 196-million mark, as the world continues to battle against the devastating second wave of the pandemic.

According to the US-based Johns Hopkins University (JHU), the total case count mounted to 196,521,631 while the death toll from the virus reached 4,196,442 on Friday morning.

So far, 3,993,341,219 vaccine doses have been administered across the globe.

The Delta variant of Covid-19 has now been detected in 124 territories worldwide, the World Health Organization (WHO) said recently.

The US, which is the world's worst-hit country in terms of both cases and deaths, has so far logged 34,745,035 cases. Besides, 612,105 people have lost their lives in the US to date, as per the JHU data.

Brazil registered 1,366 more Covid-19 fatalities in 24 hours, raising its national death toll to 554,626, the health ministry said on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the total caseload rose to 19,839,369 in the South American country after 48,443 new cases were detected during the period.

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 third worst-hit country, India's Covid-19 case count and fatalities have risen to 31,571,295 and 423,244, respectively.

Situation in Bangladesh

Bangladesh recorded 239 more Covid deaths in 24 hours till Thursday morning, as the highly transmissible Delta variant continues to devastate the country.

Besides, 15,271 people came out Covid positive during the period after the test of 52,282 samples, according to a handout issued by the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).

The fresh cases took the country’s Covid death tally to 20,255 and the caseload to 1,226,253, the DGHS said on Thursday.

The country has been seeing nearly 200 deaths a day for the past two weeks, shattering the records of daily cases and deaths almost every other day.

Meanwhile, the daily test-positivity rate declined slightly to 29.21% from Wednesday's 30.12% while the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends a 5% or below rate.

However, the case fatality rate remained unchanged at 1.65% during the period, said the DGHS.

The recovery rate too increased slightly to 85.64% from Tuesday’s 85.54% with the recovery of more 14,336 patients.

Dhaka, the worst hit division, recorded the highest 76 deaths, followed by 57 in Chattogram, 45 in Khulna, 14 each in Barishal and Sylhet, 13 in Rajshahi, 11 in Rangpur, and nine in Mymensingh divisions.

Of the deceased, 123 were men and 116 women. - UNB