Staff Correspondent: Dhaka, Sept-08,

The overall number of global Covid cases is fast nearing 222 million, as the world is still struggling to contain the second wave of the pandemic even with mass inoculations underway.

According to US-based Johns Hopkins University (JHU), the total case count mounted to 221,873,412 and the death toll reached 4,585,547 on Wednesday morning.

So far, 5, 527,520,653 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 40,279,732 cases. Besides, 650,511people have lost their lives in the US to date, as per the JHU data.

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 country has recorded 20,914,237 cases with 584,108 fatalities so far, according to the health ministry.

India's Covid-19 tally rose to 33,058,843 on Tuesday, and 31,222 new cases were registered during the past 24 hours across the country, as per the federal health ministry's latest data.

Besides, as many as 290 deaths due to the pandemic since Monday morning took the total death toll to 441,042.

Covid situation in Bangladesh

Bangladesh logged 56 Covid-19 deaths and 2,639 cases in 24 hours till Tuesday morning, showing a decline in single-day fatalities and cases as compared to Monday's figures.

The country reported 65 Covid-related deaths and 2,710 cases on Monday.

The daily case positivity rate also fell slightly to 9.69% from Monday's 9.88%, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).

The fresh numbers pushed the country’s total fatalities to 26,684, while the cases reached 15,19,805, the DGHS said.

The new cases were detected after testing 27,466 samples during the 24-hour period.

The country last saw 54 coronavirus-related deaths on June 18 and the upswing in the fatalities reached its peak on August 5 and 10 when 264 deaths were recorded.

However, the situation was much more catastrophic than June and the latter part of August as the country experienced a surge in Covid-related cases and deaths during that time.

Between May and June this year, there was a 273% rise in monthly caseloads and 162% in fatalities. In July, there was a 150% increase in caseloads and a 170% rise in deaths compared to the previous month, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

The government on Tuesday started administering the second doses of Covid-19 vaccine under its mass vaccination campaign, aiming to fight the deadly virus.

Vaccination centres in Dhaka and elsewhere in the country drew huge crowds as vaccine seekers were seen standing close to each other with little or no regard for social distancing rules.

Bangladesh on August 7 kicked off another phase of its mass vaccination drive aimed at inoculating 35 lakh people in six days.

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