Covid-19 global death toll now 520,634

With the sharp rise in infections in many countries, the global coronavirus cases have soared to 10,836,500 on Friday morning, according to the Centre for System Science and Engineering of Johns Hopkins University (JHU). 

Besides, the virus has so far claimed the lives of 520,634 people globally, shows the JHU data.

According to the data, Brazil is the second most infected country after the US with 1,496, 858 coronavirus cases and 61,884 deaths as of Friday morning.

Meanwhile, India has occupied the fourth position after Russia with 604,641 confirmed Covid-19 cases. The country has so far reported 17,834 deaths.

Russia counted the third highest Covid-19 cases- 660,231, after the US and Brazil till date.

Among the countries, the US has been the worst-hit one with the highest recorded deaths of 128,684 patients and about 2,735,554 confirmed cases.

In the US, New York alone counted 32,064 deaths till date.

The UK has the third-highest death toll of 44,080, followed by Italy with 34,818, France 29,878 and Spain 28,368, according to the JHU data.  

Coronavirus cases were first reported in China in December last year.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) declared the coronavirus crisis a pandemic on March 11.

Situation in Bangladesh

According to JHU, Bangladesh has come up to the 18th position with the number of confirmed coronavirus cases growing every day.   

Bangladesh reported its first confirmed cases on March 8 and the first death on March 18 but it has been seeing a sharp rise in both new cases and deaths in recent weeks.

Coronavirus cases in Bangladesh rose to 1,53,227  as health authorities on Thursday confirmed the detection of 4,019 new patients in a span of 24 hours.

The death toll from Covid-19 now stands at 1,926 with the death of 38 more people during the period.

Government restrictions

The government on Tuesday announced extending the duration of controlled movement and other activities until August 3 to ensure effective containment of coronavirus.

The cabinet division has already issued directives to all ministries over implementation of the decision.

According to the directives, from July 1 to August 3, no one will be allowed to move out between 10pm and 5am except there are emergency cases.

Everyone has to wear masks, maintain a safe physical distance and abide by recommended health guidelines in public places. Otherwise, he or she will have to face legal action, it said.

Besides, vehicles coming to malls have to be disinfected properly. All the shops and malls will be shut by 7pm.

In late March, the government enforced a general holiday across the country to tackle the spread of coronavirus.

But when the virus cases started peaking in late May, the restrictions were eased and regular activities were restored on a limited scale.

Source: UNB