Citizen Times Desk: Dhaka, Aug-21,

With the highly contagious Delta variant spreading rapidly across several countries, the global Covid-19 caseload is also fast approaching the grim milestone of 211 million.

The total caseload and fatalities stand at 210,820,517 and 4,414,840, respectively, as of Saturday morning, according to Johns Hopkins University (JHU).

So far, 4,867,004,474 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 37,613,490 cases, according to JHU, while 627,843people have lost their lives to Covid to date.

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 20,528,099 cases with 573,511 fatalities so far, according to the health ministry.

The third worst-hit country, India's Covid-19 tally rose to 32,358,829 on Friday, while the death toll from the virus mounted to 433,589.

Situation in Bangladesh

Bangladesh added 145 fatalities, lowest in 48 days, to its national tally Friday, as Covid deaths continue to fall for the third straight day and cases remain below the 8,000 mark since August 14.

The country reported 134 Covid deaths on July 3, the highest fatality number – 264 – on August 5 and 10, and 16,230 infections on July 28.

Bangladesh is now reporting 7,191 new cases on an average each day – 50% of the peak. The highest daily average was reported on August 3.

It recorded 5,993 new cases Friday after testing 34,892 samples, down from 8,465 logged a week earlier on August 13.

The country has been experiencing a surge of Covid-related caseload and deaths since June 2021.

Since the beginning of the vaccination programme, the government has administered at least 22,413,079 doses of Covid jabs – enough to have vaccinated around 6.7% of the country's population, assuming every person needs two doses.

Getting vaccinated prevents severe illness, hospitalisations, and death, and with the Delta variant, this is more urgent than ever, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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