Global Covid cases near 205m

 Global Covid cases near 205m

A man sits with his head down while waiting to depart the Houston Methodist Hospital on 16 July, 2021 in Houston, Texas. As of mid-April, the Houston Methodist Hospital has identified and treated the Delta variant; a mutation of Covid-19 | AFP

The overall number of global Covid cases is fast approaching the 205-million mark as several countries continue their battle against the deadlier Delta variant of novel coronavirus even with mass inoculations underway.

According to US-based Johns Hopkins University (JHU), the total case count mounted to 204,626,055 while the death toll from the virus reached 4,322,964 on Thursday morning, reports UNB.

So far, 4,527,785,425 vaccine doses have been administered across the globe.

The US, which is the world's worst-hit country in terms of both cases and deaths, has so far logged 36,177,914 cases. Besides, 618,434 people have lost their lives in the US to date, as per the JHU data.

Brazil, which has the world's second-highest pandemic death toll after the United States, and the third-largest caseload after the United States and India, recorded 565,748 deaths and 20,245,085 cases, respectively, on Wednesday.

Neighbouring India's total Covid cases surpassed 32 million on Wednesday, with 38,353 new infections reported in 24 hours across the country, as per the federal health ministry's data.

Besides, 497 deaths were recorded since Tuesday morning, taking the death toll to 429,179.

Situation in Bangladesh

Bangladesh on Wednesday reported 237 Covid-related deaths in 24 hours, a figure that shows how bad the situation is in the country.

On 10 and 5 August, the country reported highest 264 deaths shattering its previous single-day record of 258 Covid-related fatalities on 27 July.

Chaos at vaccination centres

Vaccination centres across the country drew huge crowds on the fifth day of the mass vaccination drive, creating a chaotic situation everywhere and raising the risk of the virus transmission.

Hundreds of jab-seekers, both male and female, turned up at small vaccination centres with or without online registrations, overwhelming its medical staff.

On Saturday, Bangladesh kicked off another phase of its mass vaccination drive aimed at vaccinating 3.5 million people in six days.

Covid jabs will be administered simultaneously in 4,600 unions, 1,054 municipality areas and 433 wards of the city corporations, Director General of Health Services ABM Khurshid Alam told the media on 6 August.

Vaccine Stock

Finance minister AHM Mustafa Kamal, at a virtual meeting on Wednesday, said, “We’ve to vaccinate some 138.2 million (13.82 crore) people of the country. We need to buy a total of 276.5 million (27.65 crore) vaccine doses. We have 25.5 million (2.55 crore) vaccine doses. The remaining ones need to be collected.”

Collected from "prothomalo"