Bangladesh’s coronavirus caseload climbed to 545,424 on Friday after the health authorities detected 470 new cases in the last 24 hours until morning.

With 11 newly-recorded Covid-19 deaths, the fatality count now stands at 8,395.

The mortality rate is 1.54 percent, a handout from the Directorate General of Health Services said.

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

So far, 4,018,268 tests have been carried out – 15,032 in the last 24 hours.

“The daily infection rate jumped to 3.13% and the overall rate stands at 13.57%,” the DGHS said.

On Thursday, the daily infection rate was 2.63% which was 2.65% on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the health authorities reported 743 recoveries, taking the total to 495,498 or 90.85% of the total recorded cases.

Covid vaccination drive in Bangladesh

Bangladesh launched a countrywide coronavirus vaccination drive on Feb 7.

Until Friday afternoon, 4,108,165 people registered to get the first shot of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine. By Thursday, 2,850,940 people had received the first dose. The second dose has to be taken between 8 and 12 weeks of the first one.

The government is providing the vaccine free of cost.

The government signed an agreement with the Serum Institute of India Pvt Ltd for 30 million doses of the vaccine. Serum will provide five million doses every month between January and June.

People, who are 40 or above, can register for vaccine at www.surokkha.gov.bd. On-spot registration system has been scrapped.

Health experts and the government have been urging people to get registered and follow safety guidelines even after getting vaccinated.

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Global coronavirus cases near 113mn

Coronavirus cases, first reported in China in December 2019, are approaching 113 million despite ongoing vaccination drives.

The total case count reached 112,963,634 while the death toll from the virus mounted to 2,506,276 on Friday, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

The US, the worst-hit country in the world, has so far registered 28,409,391 cases and 508,084 deaths.

Brazil has so far confirmed 251,498 deaths and 10,390,461 Covid cases, according to the latest figures.

Meanwhile, neighbouring India has so far recorded 11,046,914 cases and 156,705 deaths, as per the country's latest Covid data.

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