Global Covid-19 cases tops 26mn

The confirmed coronavirus caseload across the world has crossed 26 million on Saturday morning, according to the latest tally provided by the Johns Hopkins University (JHU).

The JHU data shows a total of 26,517,985 people have so far been diagnosed with the virus in 188 countries while the global total death toll from the virus reached 873,131

Besides, 17,621,442 people made recoveries from the virus infections.

The United States reported the highest caseload and death toll across the world, with 6,200,186 cases and 187,710 deaths.

Brazil recorded the world's second largest numbers with 4,091,801 cases and 125,501 deaths, followed by India with 3,936,747 cases and 68,472 deaths.

Other countries with over 30,000 fatalities include Mexico, Britain, Italy and France.

Unicef to lead global procurement, supply of Covid vaccines

UN Children's Fund (Unicef ) has said it will be leading procurement and supply of Covid-19 vaccinations to ensure that all countries have safe, fast and equitable access to initial doses when they are available.

The vaccine procurement and distribution efforts,  involving over 170 economies, could possibly be the world's largest and fastest ever operation of its kind.

"This is an all-hands on deck partnership among governments, manufacturers and multilateral partners to continue the high-stakes fight against the Covid-19 pandemic," said Henrietta Fore, Unicef Executive Director. 

"In our collective pursuit of a vaccine, Unicef is leveraging its unique strengths in vaccine supply to make sure that all countries have safe, fast and equitable access to the initial doses when they are available."

Unicef is the world's largest single vaccine buyer, procuring more than 2 billion doses of various vaccines annually for routine immunization and outbreak response on behalf of nearly 100 countries.

Bangladesh Coronavirus situation

Bangladesh Health authorities on Friday detected 1,929 new cases of Covid-19 after testing 13,073 samples in 24 hours, showing that the daily infection rate declined to 14.7 percent in the country, according to a media release provided by the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).

Country's total coronavirus cases  have reached 3,21,615

Since March 18, the release said, 4,421 people have died in the country with 29 dying in the last 24 hours. The fatality rate in Bangladesh is still 1.37 percent.

The country saw 2,211 Covid-19 patients recovering from the virus infections during the period, pushing up the number of total recoveries across the country to 2,16,191. 

In Bangladesh, the first three cases of coronavirus infection were detected on March 8 and it crossed 3,00,000 on Wednesday.

On July 2, some 4,019 Covid-19 patients were identified in the country, the highest in a single day.