International Desk :
The overall number of global Covid cases has now surpassed the 199-million mark as the world continues to grapple against the devastating second wave of the pandemic, reports news agency UNB.
According to the US-based Johns Hopkins University (JHU), the total case count reached 199,499,792 while the death toll from the virus stood at 4,245,542 on Wednesday morning.
So far, some 4,142,591,204 dosesof vaccines have been administered across the world.
The US, which is the world’s worst-hit country in terms of both cases and deaths, has so far logged 35,231,310 cases. Besides, 614,263 people have lost their lives in the US to date, as per the JHU data.
Brazil has registered 1,209 more Covid-19 deaths in the past 24 hours. According to the health ministry of the country, as of Tuesday, Brazil’s national death toll stands at 558,432. Meanwhile, the total caseload rose to 19,985,817 after 32,316 new cases were detected.
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 South American country is experiencing a new wave of infections, which has overwhelmed hospitals, said the ministry.
India on Wednesday registered 42,625 new coronavirus cases, taking the country’s tally to 3,17,69,132 since the pandemic broke out in January last year. The new cases are 39.5% higher than Tuesday’s count of 30,549.
The country’s Covid death toll rose by 562 to 4,25,757. The number of active cases went up by 5,395 to 4,10,353. A total of 3,09,33,022 patients have recovered from the disease so far.
The Health Ministry on Tuesday said that the second wave of the pandemic was still raging in the country. It added that R-number, an indicator of the transmission of infection, had gone up in eight states. These states were Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Lakshadweep, Tamil Nadu, Mizoram, Karnataka, Puducherry and Kerala.
An R-number lower than 1 means that one patient is not even infecting one more person, on average, and if the number keeps falling, there will be fewer and fewer cases going forward. If R is more than 1, the infection can spiral out of control.
Kerala recorded 23,676 new Covid-19 cases on Tuesday, pushing the total number of infections to 34.49 lakh. This was the state’s highest one-day rise in cases since May 29, the Hindustan Times reported. With 148 more deaths, Kerala’s toll rose to 17,103. France enforced new Covid-19 rules in view of the surge in cases, AFP reported. Wearing masks was again made mandatory in the country’s coastal areas. French overseas territories Guadalupe and Martinique returned to lockdowns.
Globally, Covid-19 has infected 199.5 million people and caused more than 4.245 million deaths since the pandemic broke out in December 2019, according to Johns Hopkins University.
Besides, Indonesia has managed to secure more than 173 million COVID-19 vaccines so far, only 46 million people have received a first dose and 19 million a second, according to figures from the Ministry of Health, reports Al Jazeera.
In East Nusa Tenggara, which is planning to vaccinate 3.8 million people, only 15 percent of the population had received a first jab, and just 7 percent the full two-dose regimen as of July 30.
East Nusa Tenggara is Indonesia’s southernmost province and is made up of more than 1,000 islands, including Sumba, Flores and western Timor where it shares a land border with East Timor or Timor-Leste. As a result of its geography and scattered population, vaccinating residents against COVID-19 presents a significant challenge to the health authorities.
The local government had originally hoped to achieve its ambitious vaccination target by the end of the year, with the rollout of the second phase of vaccines meant to begin in July.
Unfortunately, problems with supply meant they missed that goal.
