Global Covid cases top 417 million, deaths 5.84 m

A healthcare worker prepares a COVID-19 vaccine at a hospital in Mogadishu, Somalia. Unicef

Dhaka, Feb 17 -- The overall number of Covid cases has now surged past 417 million as Omicron infections keep rising across the globe.

According to Johns Hopkins University (JHU), the total case count mounted to 417,488, 213 while the death toll from the virus reached 5,849,213 Thursday morning.

The US has recorded 78,169, 874 cases so far and 928,490 people have died from the virus in the country, the university data shows.

India's Covid-19 tally rose to 42,723,558 on Wednesday with 30,615 new cases in 24 hours across the country, showed the federal health ministry's latest data.

Besides, 514 more deaths have been reported from the pandemic since Tuesday morning, taking the total death toll to 509,872.

Meanwhile, Brazil, which has been experiencing a new wave of cases since January last year, registered 27,819,996 cases as of Wednesday, while its Covid death toll rose to 641,096.

The number of new coronavirus cases globally fell by 19% in the last week while the number of deaths remained stable, according to the World Health Organization, reports AP.

The UN health agency said late Tuesday in its weekly report on the pandemic that just over 16 million new Covid-19 infections and about 75,000 deaths were reported worldwide last week.

The Western Pacific was the only region to report a rise in new weekly cases, an increase of about 19%, Southeast Asia reported a decrease of about 37%, the biggest drop globally. The number of deaths rose by 38% in the Middle East and by about one-third in the Western Pacific.

The biggest number of new Covid-19 cases was seen in Russia. Cases there and elsewhere in Eastern Europe doubled in recent weeks, driven by a surge of the hugely infectious Omicron variant.

WHO said that all other coronavirus variants, including Alpha, Beta and Delta, continue to decline globally as Omicron crowds them out.

Situation in Bangladesh

Bangladesh logged 15 more Covid-linked deaths with 3,929 fresh cases in 24 hours till Wednesday morning, indicating a downtrend in both cases and fatalities.

The daily positivity rate slightly decreased to 12.20% from Tuesday’s 13.77% after testing 34,175 samples during the period, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).

On Tuesday, Bangladesh reported 34 more Covid-linked deaths with 4,746 fresh cases.

The fresh numbers took the country’s total fatalities to 28,887 while the caseload mounted to 1,923,031.

Meanwhile, the mortality rate remained static at 1.50%.

However, the recovery rate slightly rose to 89.24% with the recovery of 12,757 more patients during the 24-hour period.

On January 28, Bangladesh logged its earlier highest daily positivity rate at 33.37% reporting 15,440 cases and 20 deaths.

On December 9 last year, Bangladesh again logged zero Covid-related death after nearly three weeks as the pandemic was apparently showing signs of easing.

The country reported its first zero Covid-related death in a single day on November 20 last year along with 178 infections since the pandemic broke out in Bangladesh in March 2020.

Besides, the country registered the highest daily caseload of 16,230 on July 28 last year, while the highest number of daily fatalities was 264 on August 10 last year. - UNB