Global Covid cases top 208 million

The global Covid-19 caseload has now surpassed 208 million, with the world still struggling to contain the second outbreak of the pandemic.

According to US-based Johns Hopkins University (JHU), the total case count mounted to 208,493,338 while the death toll from the virus reached 4,380,611 on Wednesday morning.

So far, 4,749,026,949 vaccine doses have been administered across the globe.

The US, which is the world's worst-hit country in terms of both cases and deaths, has so far logged 37,006,732 cases. Besides, 623,283 people have lost their lives in the US to date, as per the JHU data.

Meanwhile, US experts are expected to recommend Covid-19 vaccine boosters for all Americans, regardless of age, eight months after they received their second dose of the shot, to ensure lasting protection against the coronavirus as the Delta variant spreads across the country.

Federal health officials have been actively looking at whether extra shots for the vaccinated would be needed as early as this fall, reviewing case numbers in the US as well as the situation in other countries such as Israel, where preliminary studies suggest the vaccine's protection against serious illness dropped among those vaccinated in January.

Brazil registered 434 more Covid-19 deaths in the past 24 hours, raising its national death toll to 569,492, the health ministry said on Monday.

The ministry said that the total caseload rose to 20,378,570 after 14,471 new cases were detected during the period.

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.

India's Covid-19 tally rose to 32,250,679 on Tuesday, as 25,166 new cases were registered during the past 24 hours, as per the federal health ministry's latest data.

It was the lowest single-day spike in the past 154 days, according to the ministry.

Besides, 437 deaths due to the pandemic since Monday morning took the total death toll to 432,079.

Even though India is easing its restrictions amid a sharp drop in new Covid-19 cases, the threat of a third wave looms large, as experts predict another wave might hit the country by the end of August but say it will be less brutal.

The caseload will rise slowly instead of significantly, and the third wave will not be as chaotic as the second one, if the Delta variant remains dominant and no new variant emerges, experts have said.

Situation in Bangladesh

Bangladesh reported 198 more coronavirus-related deaths and 7,535 fresh infections in 24 hours till Tuesday morning.

The country has been seeing fatalities below 200 for the last five days, a slight improvement from the July 25-August 13 period when daily deaths were recorded over 200.

The fresh numbers took the country's total fatalities to 24,547 and the Covid cases to 1,433,396, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).

The new cases were detected after testing 39,278 samples, which lowered the case positivity rate to 19.18 % from Monday's 21.08%.

Read: Lower age bar for Covid vaccination further: JS body

Meanwhile, the case fatality rate remained unchanged at 1.71%, said the DGHS.

During the period, the recovery rate rose to 91.73% with 12,950 more people recovering from the infection.

Meanwhile, the parliamentary standing committee on health and family welfare on Tuesday recommended lowering the age limit to receive Covid vaccines further from the existing 25 years.