Notwithstanding a drop in the number of fresh cases worldwide, the global Covid-19 tally surpassed 169 million on Saturday.
The global caseload and fatalities currently stand at 169,278,016 and 3,518,698, respectively, according to Johns Hopkins University (JHU).
So far, 1,808,194,185 vaccine doses have been administered across the world.
The US has so far registered 33,239,509 Covid cases and 593,338 deaths, as per the university data.
India has seen a slight fall in daily cases in over one and a half months as the country’s Covid-19 tally reached 27,555,457 on Friday, with 186,364 new cases added during the past 24 hours, said the federal health ministry.
Besides, as many as 3,660 deaths since Thursday morning took the fatality toll to 318,895.
Brazil registered 49,768 new cases of Covid-19 in 24 hours, pushing up its total number of confirmed infections to 16,391,930, the Health Ministry said on Friday.
In the same period, 2,371 more people died from the virus, raising the pandemic death toll to 459,045.
Situation in Bangladesh
Covid-19 claimed 31 more Covid deaths, including 10 each in Dhaka and Chattogram divisions, in 24 hours till Friday morning, pushing up the country’s fatality figure to 12,511.
Also, 1,358 people came out positive in 14,606 tests carried out during the same period, taking the country’s caseload to 796,343.
The daily positivity rate rose to 9.30% from Thursday’s 8.12%, said the Directorate General of Health Services.
Vaccination drive
The administration of the first dose of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine has remained suspended in Bangladesh since April 26.
Also, the country, the prime recipient of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, has suspended the registration for Covid-19 jabs due to a shortage of jabs amid a delay in the timely arrival of shipments from India.
However, recently two other vaccines, Russia’s Sputnik V and China’s Sinopharm, got approval from the Directorate General of Drug Administration (DGDA) for emergency use in Bangladesh.
Bangladesh launched its vaccination drive on February 7 with Oxford-AstraZeneca doses acquired from India’s Serum Institute.
Bangladesh to receive 1 lakh-plus Pfizer vaccine Sunday
A Qatar Airways flight carrying a consignment of 100,620 doses of the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine will arrive in Bangladesh Sunday.
On Thursday, Bangladesh approved the emergency use of the Pfizer vaccine.
Covid vaccination to get priority in budget FY22
A massive vaccination of the population for protection against Covid-19 infection will be the major focus of the Tk602,880 crore budget for 2021-2022. There will be a Tk10,000 crore special allocation for facing the impacts of Covid-19.
Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal will place the budget in Parliament on June 3.
‘Bangladesh to see worst Covid outbreak by June-end’
With Covid cases soaring in frontier districts apparently because of the highly contagious Indian variant, experts fear that Bangladesh may face the worst outbreak of the virus by the end of June.
They said if the Indian variant can make its way into other areas from the bordering districts, Bangladesh is likely to witness more than 20,000 daily cases in early July.
Lack of necessary oxygen supply and other healthcare facilities may aggravate the situation, according to the experts.
(Source :UNB)
