The overall number of Covid infections is fast approaching 362 million, with a spike in cases of the Omicron variant across the world.

According to Johns Hopkins University (JHU), the total case count mounted to 361,864,996 while the death toll from the virus reached 5,625,803 Thursday morning.

The US has recorded 72,909,527 cases so far and 876,060 people have died from the virus in the country, the university data shows.

India's Covid-19 tally rose to 40,085,116 on Wednesday, as 285,914 new cases were registered in 24 hours across the South Asian country, according to the federal health ministry's latest data.

Meanwhile, 665 deaths due to the pandemic reported since Tuesday morning took the total death toll to 491,127.

Brazil, which has been experiencing a new wave of cases since last January, registered 24,560,093 cases as of Wednesday, while its Covid death toll rose to 624,717.

Situation in Bangladesh

Bangladesh logged 17 more Covid-linked deaths with 15,527 fresh cases in 24 hours till Wednesday morning.

The daily positivity rate slightly declined to 31.64% from Tuesday’s 32.40% after testing 49,275 samples, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).

The country logged its daily positivity rate of 32.55% on July 24 last year, reporting 6,780 cases and 195 deaths.

On Tuesday, the country reported 18 more Covid-linked deaths and 16,033 fresh cases with a positivity rate at 32.40%.

The fresh numbers took the country’s total fatalities to 28,273 while the caseload mounted to 1,731,524 on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the mortality rate further declined to 1.63%.

However, the recovery rate also kept declining to 90.09% with the recovery of 1,052 more patients during the 24-hour period.

Bangladesh’s total tally of Omicron cases reached 69, with the detection of five more cases till Sunday, according to GISAID, a global initiative on sharing all influenza data.

On December 9 last year, Bangladesh again logged zero Covid-related death after nearly three weeks as the pandemic was apparently showing signs of easing.

The country reported this year’s first zero Covid-related death in a single day on November 20 last year, along with 178 infections, since the pandemic broke out in Bangladesh in March 2020.

Besides, the country registered the highest daily caseload of 16,230 on July 28 last year, while the highest number of daily fatalities was 264 on August 10 last year.

TH