Amid a downward trend in the world’s Covid-19 trajectory, new variants have raised worry about corona re-infections despite widespread vaccination.

The global caseload has now surpassed 109 million, according to Johns Hopkins University.

To be specific, the total case count reached 109,140,417 while the death toll from the virus mounted to 2,407,537 on Tuesday morning, as per the university’s Covid data.
The US, the world’s worst-hit country, has so far registered 27,692,690 Covid cases and 486,317 fatalities, according to the university’s corona tracker.

Though the average daily new Covid cases in the US dipped below 100,000 in recent days for the first time in months, experts cautioned Sunday that precautions against the pandemic must remain in place, reports AP.

The seven-day rolling average of new infections was well above 200,000 for much of December and went to roughly 250,000 in January, according to the Johns Hopkins data, as the pandemic came roaring back after it had been tamed in some places over the summer.

That average dropped below 100,000 on Friday for the first time since November 4. It stayed below 100,000 on Saturday.

Brazil registered 528 deaths from Covid-19 in the past 24 hours, raising the death toll to 239,773, the Ministry of Health said Monday.

The ministry also reported 32,197 more cases, bringing the national count to 9,866,710.
Besides, India has so far registered 10,916,589 Covid cases and 155,732 deaths, according to the health ministry.

Situation in Bangladesh

Covid-19 claimed 11 more lives and infected another 446 in Bangladesh in the past 24 hours till Monday morning, showing higher rates both in death toll and infection than that of Sunday.

With the latest figures, the Covid-19 fatalities in the country rose to 8,285 and the caseload to 541,038, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).

In a handout, the DGHS said the daily coronavirus infection rate in Bangladesh rose to 3.15 percent from Sunday’s 2.53 percent, while the overall infection rate stood at 14.01 percent, marginally lower than Monday’s 14.05.

However, the mortality rate remained almost steady at 1.53 percent for the past few days, including Monday, said the handout, adding that 487,870 patients (90.17 pc) have recovered from the virus infection so far.

As of now, 3,862,254 samples have been tested, including 14,138 in the past 24 hours.

Bangladesh reported its first coronavirus cases on March 8 and the first death on March 18 last year.

Vaccination in Bangladesh

Amid the surging coronavirus situation, the government launched a countrywide Covid-19 vaccination drive on February 7.

Doses of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine that Bangladesh acquired from India’s Serum Institute have been sent to hospitals across the country to make the inoculation drive a success.

Physicians and nurses have been trained to carry out the vaccination drive. So far, top government officials, Cabinet members, judges, policemen, along with general people, have received the vaccine.

On February 8, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina instructed the authorities concerned to bring down the age limit for the vaccine recipients from 55 years to 40 to widen the drive.

After the first dose, the second one has to be taken within 8 to 12 weeks.