Shawdesh desk:

The number of Covid cases is gradually approaching 481 million across the globe amid rise in new infections in parts of the world.

According to Johns Hopkins University, the total case count mounted to 480,860,981 while the death toll from the virus reached 6,123,279 on Monday morning.

The US has recorded 79,954,418 cases so far and 976,702 people have died from the virus in the country, the university data shows.

The number of new Covid cases globally increased by 7% in the last week, driven largely by rising infections in the Western Pacific, even as reported deaths from Covid-19 fell, the World Health Organization said.

There were more than 12 million new weekly cases and just under 33,000 deaths, a 23 per cent decline in mortality, according to the U.N. health agency’s report on the pandemic issued late Tuesday, reports AP.

Confirmed cases of the virus had been falling steadily worldwide since January but rose again last week, due to the more infectious omicron variant and its subvariant BA.2, in addition to the suspension of Covid-19 protocols in numerous countries in Europe, North America and elsewhere.

Many scientists have credited that to the booster immunization programs undertaken in numerous rich countries, which have broken the connection between Covid-19 infection and severe disease.

China has reported more than 56,000 confirmed cases nationwide this month, reports AP.

India’s Covid-19 tally rose to 43,019,453 on Sunday as 1,421 new cases were registered during the past 24 hours across the country, showed the federal health ministry’s latest data.

Besides, 149 deaths due to the pandemic were reported since Saturday morning, taking the total death toll to 521,004.

Meanwhile, Brazil, which has been experiencing a new wave of cases since January last year, registered 10,239 cases and 117 more deaths from COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, bringing the total number of infections to 29,842,418 and the national death toll to 658,879, the Ministry of Health said Sunday.

Bangladesh logged 43 fresh Covid cases in 24 hours till Sunday morning, taking the total caseload to 19, 51,282.

As per the latest government data, the country’s total fatalities remained unchanged at 29,118 as no death was reported during the period.