Global Covid cases cross 253m

The overall number of Covid cases has surged past 253 million amid the global race to vaccinate masses against the infectious disease.

According to Johns Hopkins University (JHU), the total case count mounted to 253,807,313 while the death toll from the virus reached 5,106,530 Tuesday morning, reports AP.

The US has recorded 47,221,549 cases to date and more than 764,363 people have died so far from the virus in the country, as per the university data.

Brazil, which has been experiencing a new wave of cases since January, registered 21,960,766 cases as of Tuesday, while its Covid death toll rose to 611,346.

India's Covid-19 tally rose to 34,447,536 on Tuesday, as 11,365 new cases were registered in 24 hours across the country, as per the federal health ministry data.

Besides, 125 deaths due to the pandemic since Monday morning took the total death toll to 463,655.

Russia has recorded 8,956,136 cases with fatalities of 251,796 so far.

For two months now, a stubborn wave of virus infections has ripped mercilessly through several countries in Central and Eastern Europe, where vaccination rates are much lower than elsewhere on the continent.

While medical workers pleaded for tough restrictions or even lockdowns, leaders let the virus rage unimpeded for weeks.

“I don’t believe in measures. I don’t believe in the same measures that existed before the vaccines,” Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic said last month as the Balkan nation sustained some of its worst daily death toll of the pandemic. “Why do we have vaccines then?”

A World Health Organization official declared earlier this month that Europe is again at the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic. While several Western European countries are seeing spikes in infections, it is nations to the East that are driving fatalities.

Romania, Bulgaria and the Balkan states recorded some of the highest per capita death rates in the world in the first week of November, according to WHO.

Situation in Bangladesh

Bangladesh recorded four more Covid-linked deaths and 234 fresh infections in 24 hours until Monday morning.

The daily case positivity rate slightly increased to 1.32 percent from Sunday’s 1.14 per cent.

The fresh numbers took the total fatalities to 27,926 while the country’s caseload mounted to 15,72,735, said the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).

All the four deceased were men.

Dhaka division and Rajshahi division logged one Covid-linked death each on Monday, while Chattogram division reported two, said the directorate.

However, the mortality rate remained static at 1.78 percent.

The fresh cases were detected after testing 17,877 samples, the directorate said.

Besides, the recovery rate remained unchanged at 97.71 percent, with the recovery of 229 more patients during the 24-hour period.

On the 45th epidemiological week of the pandemic, of the 27 deaths recorded from November 08 to November 14, 11.1 percent received Covid vaccines while 88.9 percent did not, it added.

So far, 3,31,43,905 people have fully been vaccinated in the country, while 5,16,11,401 received the first dose as of Sunday, according to the directorate.