Shawdesh Desk:

The overall number of global Covid cases is gradually nearing 667 million, with the sudden surge of the virus’ sub-variant in Asia.

According to latest global data, the total case count mounted to 666,603,048 while the death toll from the virus reached 6,703,798 on Thursday morning.

The United States has recorded 102,963,370 cases so far, while 1,120,040 people have died from the virus in the country, both highest counts around the world.

India reported 141 new cases of Covid-19 on Wednesday, taking the caseload to 44,680,402.

With no deaths reported across the country during this period, India’s Covid death toll remained static at 530,707.

Meanwhile, France has registered 39,356,184 Covid-19 cases so far, occupying the third position, while 162,377 people have died in the country, as per the Worldometer.

The head of the World Health Organisation said on Wednesday that the agency is ‘concerned about the risk to life in China’ amid the coronavirus’ explosive spread across the country and the lack of outbreak data from the Chinese government, reports AP.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the agency recently met with Chinese officials to underline the importance of sharing more details about Covid issues including hospitalisation rates and genetic sequences, even as the pandemic continues to recede globally since it began in late 2019.

The WHO said that Chinese scientists have now shared more than 770 sequences, with omicron subvariants BA.5 and its descendants accounting for more than 97% of all local infections. Globally, BA.5 variants comprise about 68% of all sequences.

China reported 9,308 Covid cases in the last 24 hours till Thursday morning, taking the caseload to 461,825. With one more death, the country’s death toll stands at 5,259.

Bangladesh registered 21 more Covid cases in 24 hours till Wednesday morning.

With the new numbers, the country’s total caseload rose to 2,037,208, according to the Directorate General of Health Services.