The overall number of Covid cases has crossed 246 million amid the global race to vaccinate masses against the infectious disease.

According to Johns Hopkins University (JHU), the total case count mounted to 246, 366,054 while the death tally from the virus reached 4,994,688 until Sunday morning.

The US has recorded 45,949,951 cases to date and more than 745,678 people have died so far from the virus in the country, as per the university data.

Brazil, which has been experiencing a new wave of cases since January, registered 21,804,094 cases so far, while its Covid death toll rose to 607,694.

India’s COVID-19 tally rose to 34,260,470 on Saturday, as 14,313 new cases were registered during the past 24 hours across the country, showed the federal health ministry’s latest data.

Besides, 549 more deaths were recorded since Friday morning, taking the death toll to 457,740.

Russia on Saturday reported a record number of new coronavirus infections as authorities hope to stem the rising contagion by keeping most people off work for the next week, reports AP

The government’s coronavirus task force reported 40,251 new infections in 24 hours, exceeding the previous record 40,096 reported on Thursday. It said 1,160 people died of the virus over the past day, three fewer than the record set a day earlier.

That brought Russia’s official COVID-19 death count to 237,380, by far the largest in Europe. More than 8.47 million infections have been recorded in the country of 146 million during the pandemic.

Situation in Bangladesh

Though the coronavirus pandemic has eased in Bangladesh, it killed eight more people and infected 166 others in 24 hours till Saturday morning.

The daily-case positivity rate declined to 1.25 per cent from Friday’s 1.71 per cent.

The fresh cases were detected after testing 13,240 samples, said the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).

With the fresh numbers, the Covid-19 fatalities reached 27,862 while the caseload climbed to 1,569,328, according to DGHS.

Among the deceased, six were men and two were women.

However, the mortality rate rose to 1.78 per cent from Friday’s 1.77 per cent.

Also, the recovery rate stood at 97.69 per cent with the recovery of 181 more patients during the period.

Mass vaccination

Bangladesh on Thursday launched the second phase of its special nationwide mass vaccination drive, aiming to vaccinate 80 lakh people with the second shot in a day.

The 9am to 3pm vaccination drive was part of the special campaign that was first unveiled on September 27 to mark Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s 75th birthday.

On September 28, the first phase of the special nationwide mass vaccination drive was launched.

However, that target to inoculate 80 lakh people was not met in a single day. Across eight divisions, 66,25,123 people were vaccinated, “which is a record number of jabs inoculated in Bangladesh in a single day”, the DGHS said.

Besides, 80,93,236 people were vaccinated with the first dose under this campaign, which spilled over to September 29.

Bangladesh on August 7 kicked off its mass vaccination drive to inoculate some 35 lakh people in six days.

Vaccination of school students

A new campaign to vaccinate school students, aged 12-17, against Covid-19 will kick off at 12 centers in Dhaka on November 1.

Health Minister Zahid Maleque disclosed this while talking to reporters after the cabinet meeting on Thursday.

Some 40,000 students will be vaccinated every day under the campaign, the minister said.