COVID
Global Covid cases top 541 million
The overall number of Covid cases has now crossed 541 million amid a rise in new infections in parts of the world.
According to the latest global data, the total case count mounted to 541,023,306 while the death toll from the virus reached 6,332,463 Tuesday morning.
The US has recorded 87,424,846 cases so far and 1,036,084 people have died from the virus in the country, the data shows.
India's COVID-19 tally rose to 43,235,241on Monday, as 13,224 new cases were registered during the past 24 hours across the country, showed the federal health ministry's latest data.
Read: Remain alert as Covid cases rising: Health Minister
Besides, 14 deaths from the virus were registered across the country since Saturday morning, taking the total death toll to 524,771.
Brazil has recorded 31,456,865 cases so far and 668,177 people have died from the virus in the country.
Situation in Bangladesh
The Covid-19 cases in Bangladesh made another jump to 128 in 24 hours till Monday morning taking the country's total caseload to 1,954,243, the health directorate said.
The country's total fatalities, however, remained unchanged at 29,131 as no death was reported during the period, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
The daily test positivity rate declined a bit to 1.91 per cent from Sunday’s 2.06 per cent from as 6,688 samples were tested during this time.
The country on Sunday saw 109 cases with zero death.
Read: Covid-19: Over 1 lakh Rohingya children vaccinated in Bangladesh
The mortality rate remained unchanged at 1.49 per cent. The recovery rate also remained static at 97.50 per cent as 71 patients recovered during this period.
Health Minister Zahid Maleque at an event in the city on Monday urged all to maintain health protocols as the Covid cases started rising in the country.
No satisfaction: Jagger has COVID, Rolling Stones gig off
The Rolling Stones canceled their concert in Amsterdam on Monday, just hours before it was due to start after lead singer Mick Jagger tested positive for COVID-19.
The band announced the cancelation in a statement, saying the 78-year-old Jagger tested positive “after experiencing symptoms of COVID upon arrival at the stadium” on the outskirts of Amsterdam. There were no further details about his condition.
“The Rolling Stones are deeply sorry for tonight’s postponement, but the safety of the audience, fellow musicians and the touring crew has to take priority,” the statement said, adding that the show would be rescheduled and tickets for the concert at Amsterdam's Johan Cruyff Arena would be honored for the new date.
READ: Rolling Stones return to stage, tour after Mick Jagger mends
Some fans were already in the stadium when it was announced that the show had been scrapped.
The veteran rockers are touring Europe with a show called SIXTY to mark six decades together. Their last show was at Liverpool's Anfield Stadium on June 9. The next scheduled concert is in Bern, Switzerland, on June 17.
Bangladesh reports 64 Covid cases, zero death
Bangladesh registered 64 new Covid cases in 24 hours till Friday morning taking the country's total caseload to 1,953,935.
The country's total fatalities remained unchanged at 29,131 as no death was reported during the period, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
The daily test positivity rate increased to 1.35 per cent from Thursday’s 1.15 per cent as 4,685 samples were tested.
The country on Thursday saw 59 cases with zero death.
The mortality rate remained unchanged at 1.49 per cent. The recovery rate remained static at 97.50 per cent as 145 patients recovered during this period.
READ: Bangladesh reports 59 Covid cases, zero death
In May, the country reported only four Covid-linked deaths and 816 new cases, while 7,356 patients recovered from the disease, according to the DGHS.
Among the four deaths during the period, one was vaccinated with single dose of Covid vaccine while three were vaccinated with two doses.
The country reported its first zero Covid death in a single day on November 20 last year, along with 178 cases, since the pandemic broke out here in March 2020.
On January 28, Bangladesh logged its previous highest positivity rate of 33.37 per cent.
The country registered its highest daily caseload of 16,230 on July 28 last year and daily fatalities of 264 on August 10 in the same year.
Shah Rukh, Katrina test positive for Covid
Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan and leading actress Katrina Kaif are the latest Bollywood celebrities to have contracted coronavirus. Both are currently in home isolation in the city of Mumbai.
Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee took to Twitter to wish Shah Rukh a fast "recovery".
"Just came to know that our Brand Ambassador Shahrukh Khan has been detected covid positive. Pray for the fastest recovery for the superstar," Mamata wrote.
Shah Rukh is considered the most talented Bollywood star. Popularly called the "King Khan", he has acted in over 80 films in a career spanning over 25 years. And he has a net worth of USD 700 million.
Basically a model, Hong Kong-born Katrina began her Bollywood career with 'Boom', an action film, in 2003 that flopped.
Two years later, she earned commercial success in the Hindi film industry with her romantic comedy 'Maine Pyaar Kyun Kiya'. And what followed was a series of box-office hits.
In December last year, the 38-year-old tied the knot with Bollywood heartthrob Vicky Kaushal at a fort in the princely state of Rajasthan in northwestern India.
A number of Bollywood celebrities, right from singer Kanika Kapoor to actors Aamir Khan, Sunny Deol and Amitabh Bachchan, have tested positive for Covid since the pandemic broke out in March 2020.
Also read: Shah Rukh Khan's son gets clean chit in drugs case
N. Korea moves to soften curbs amid doubts over COVID counts
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and other top officials discussed revising stringent anti-epidemic restrictions during a meeting Sunday, state media reported, as they maintained a widely disputed claim that the country’s first COVID-19 outbreak is slowing.
The discussion at the North’s Politburo meeting suggests it will soon relax a set of draconian curbs imposed after its admission of the omicron outbreak this month out of concern about its food and economic situations.
Kim and other Politburo members “made a positive evaluation of the pandemic situation being controlled and improved across the country,” the official Korean Central News Agency said.
READ: N. Korea's Kim vows to develop more powerful means of attack
They also “examined the issue of effectively and quickly coordinating and enforcing the anti-epidemic regulations and guidelines given the current stable anti-epidemic situation," KCNA said.
On Sunday, North Korea reported 89,500 more patients with fever symptoms, taking the country’s total to 3.4 million. It didn’t say whether there were additional deaths. The country’s latest death toll reported Friday was 69, setting its mortality rate at 0.002%, an extremely low count that no other country, including advanced economies, has reported in the fight against COVID-19.
Many outside experts say North Korea is clearly understating its fatality rate to prevent any political damage to Kim at home. They say North Korea should have suffered many more deaths because its 26 million people are largely unvaccinated against COVID-19 and it lacks the capacity to treat patients with critical conditions. Others suspect North Korea might have exaggerated its earlier fever cases to try to strengthen its internal control of its population.
Since its May 12 admission of the omicron outbreak, North Korea has only been announcing the number of patients with feverish symptoms daily, but not those with COVID-19, apparently because of a shortage of test kits to confirm coronavirus cases in large numbers.
But many outside health experts view most of the reported fever cases as COVID-19, saying North Korean authorities would know how to distinguish the symptoms from fevers caused by other prevalent infectious diseases.
The outbreak has forced North Korea to impose a nationwide lockdown, isolate all work and residential units from one another and ban region-to-region movements. The country still allows key agricultural, construction and other industrial activities, but the toughened restrictions have triggered worries about its food insecurity and a fragile economy already hit hard by pandemic-caused border shutdowns.
Some observers say North Korea will likely soon declare victory over COVID-19 and credit it to Kim’s leadership.
Yang Un-chul, an analyst at the private Sejong Institute in South Korea, said the North’s recently elevated restrictions must be dealing a serious blow to its coal, agricultural and other labor-intensive industrial sectors. But he said those difficulties won’t likely develop to a level that threatens Kim’s grip on power, as the COVID-19 outbreak and strengthened curbs have given him a chance to boost his control of his people.
Covid: Bangladesh reports zero death, 28 new cases
Bangladesh reported zero Covid death and 28 cases in the 24 hours to Saturday morning.
While the country's total fatalities remained unchanged at 29,130, the new number took its caseload to 1,953,407.
The daily test positivity rate rose to 0.83 percent from Friday's 0.59 percent as 3,356 samples were tested, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
The mortality rate remained unchanged at 1.49 percent. The recovery rate rose to 97.38 percent from 97.37 percent.
Also read: WHO: COVID-19 cases mostly drop, except for the Americas
In April, the country reported only five Covid-linked deaths and 1,114 new cases, while 14,100 patients recovered from the disease, according to the DGHS.
Among the five deaths during the period, two were unvaccinated patients while three were vaccinated with two doses of the Covid vaccine.
The country reported its first zero Covid death in a single day on November 20 last year since the pandemic broke out here in March 2020.
Also read: India records 2,710 new COVID-19 cases, 14 more deaths
The country registered its highest daily caseload of 16,230 on July 28 last year and daily fatalities of 264 on August 10 in the same year.
Non-communicable diseases behind 70% of normal deaths: Health Minister
Health and Family Welfare Minister Zahid Maleque said that one million people die normal deaths in the country every year. Of these, 70 percent die of non-communicable diseases.
He made the remarks while addressing a launching ceremony of the annual research paper organized by the Non-Communicable Diseases Control (NCDC) at a city hotel on Thursday.
The minister said the country's health sector is today more advanced than at any time in the past. But many new problems have also emerged along with the development in the health sector of the country.
“We are committed to tackling infectious diseases through health care development and we have dealt with infectious diseases like TB, cholera and diarrhea very successfully. We have also dealt with Covid-19 pandemic. These are now under control. But many non-communicable diseases have increased during this time”, the minister added.
Environmental pollution is one of the reasons for these deaths related to non-communicable diseases. Our lifestyle and food habits are also responsible for increasing these deaths. Treatment of these diseases is costly. As a result, expenditure is increasing at the individual and state levels.
Giving importance to research, Maleque said the research helps policymakers to take effective decisions. So we will be engaged in more and more research. The results of several studies have been published today. We hope that the results will play a significant role in the development of our overall health system, especially in the fight against the NDC.
"The government is also emphasizing health education. At present, there are 38 government medical colleges and 5 medical universities in the country."
Zahid Maleque highlighted the various initiatives and successes of the government in dealing with Covid-19.
Also read: 'Rich man's disease': Curious case of Covid in Dhaka slums
HSC exams to be held with shortened syllabus, question paper
This year's Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) exams are likely to start on August 22 with curtailed syllabus and fewer marks than usual.
Students will have two hours to write the exams – 20 minutes for multiple-choice questions (MCQs) and 1 hour and 40 minutes for creative questions (CQs).
This year's exams will kick off with the Bangla first paper followed by Bangla second paper.
The schedule, signed by Professor SM Amirul Islam, convener of the board's Examination Regulatory Committee and controller of examinations of Dhaka Education Board, was released Sunday.
Typically, students would take a 3-hour test for 100 marks. However, taking stock of the learning losses students suffered during the pandemic, the syllabi and exams have been shortened.
However, even though students will sit for tests with fewer marks – 45 to 55 – their final mark will be converted out of 100 during the evaluation.
Usually, HSC exams take place in April. The pandemic has forced the government to depart from the usual schedule.
In 2021, following the resumption of in-person classes, HSC candidates sat for tests in December on only three optional subjects with a shortened syllabus and fewer marks than usual.
HSC exams were not held in 2020 due to the pandemic; students were evaluated based on their results in previous public exams.
Also read: Next year SSC in Apr, HSC in June: Dipu Moni
Covid: Bangladesh reports 10 new cases, no death
Bangladesh reported 10 Covid cases in 24 hours until Saturday morning which took the total caseload to 1,952,776.
With no new Covid death reported during this period the country's total fatalities from the pandemic remained unchanged at 29,127.
The daily test positivity rate declined to 0.38 per cent from Friday’s 0.55 per cent as 2,656 samples were tested, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
Also read: Bangladesh ranks top among the countries to receive free Covid vaccine from WHO: Health minister
On Friday, the number of cases was higher as 19 new cases were reported.
The mortality rate remained unchanged at 1.49 percent. The recovery rate rose to 97.16 percent as 217 patients recovered during this period.
Bangladesh has advanced eight notches to rank 5th out of 121 countries worldwide on Nikkei's Covid-19 Recovery Index.
With a score of 80 on the index, Bangladesh ranked only below Qatar, the UAE, Cambodia and Rwanda in the latest edition of the index published Thursday.
In April, the country reported only five Covid-linked deaths and 1,114 new cases, while 14,100 patients recovered from the disease, according to the DGHS.
Among the five deaths during the period, two were unvaccinated patients while three were vaccinated with two doses of the Covid vaccine.
Also read: Covid recovery index: Bangladesh 5th in the world, top in South Asia
The country reported its first zero Covid death in a single day on November 20 last year, along with 178 cases, since the pandemic broke out here in March 2020.
On January 28, Bangladesh logged its previous highest positivity rate of 33.37 percent.
The country registered its highest daily caseload of 16,230 on July 28 last year and daily fatalities of 264 on August 10 in the same year.
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Global Covid cases near 515 million
The overall number of Covid cases is now approaching 515 million amid a rise in new infections in parts of the world.
According to Johns Hopkins University (JHU), the total case count mounted to 514,913,818 while the death toll from the virus reached 6,240,888 Wednesday morning.
The US has recorded 81,506,075 cases so far and 994,744 people have died from the virus in the country, the university data shows.
Also read: What happens if I get COVID-19 while traveling?
India's Covid-19 tally rose to 43,088,401 on Tuesday, as 3,235 new cases were registered in 24 hours across the country, showed the federal health ministry's data.
Besides, as many as 20 deaths across the country due to the pandemic since Monday morning took the total death toll to 523,920.
Situation in Bangladesh
Bangladesh reported zero Covid death and seven cases in the 24 hours till Tuesday morning.
While the country's total fatalities remained unchanged at 29,127, the new numbers pushed up the caseload to 1,952,733.
The daily test positivity rate rose to 0.42 percent from Monday's 0.40 percent as 1,686 samples were tested, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
Also read: Covid: Bangladesh reports zero death, seven new cases
The mortality rate remained unchanged at 1.49 percent. The recovery rate rose to 97.11 percent from 97.10 percent.
In April, the country reported only five Covid-linked deaths and 1,114 new cases, while 14,100 patients recovered from the disease, according to the DGHS.
Among the five deaths during the period, two were unvaccinated patients while three were vaccinated with two doses of the Covid vaccine.