With just over a million Covid-19 tests carried out since March, Bangladesh on Friday inched closer to 200,000 officially confirmed cases – which means nearly one in every five tests had turned out to be positive.
The health authorities announced finding 3,034 new cases after testing 13,460 samples across the country in the last 24 hours until morning. The number of confirmed cases now stands at 199,357. The government says 10,06,791 samples have so far been tested, reports UNB.
“In the last 24 hours, 51 people died of coronavirus raising the total number to 2,547,” Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) Additional Director General Prof Dr Nasima Sultana said at a daily briefing.
Another 1,762 persons have recovered from coronavirus, bringing the total number of recoveries to 108,725.
Russia close to phase 3 vaccine trials
The final trials of a Russian coronavirus vaccine developed by the Gamalei National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology may be completed sooner than other countries, an expert said.
Kirill Dmitriev, the head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, told that this phase 3 trial is necessary to put the vaccine into active use.
“We believe that Russia will possibly go through this phase quicker than other countries," Dmitriev said, reports TASS.
He said that phase 3 trials implied switching over to large-scale human trials which will involve thousands of people in Moscow.
"And we’ll also start conducting phase 3 in other countries," Dmitriev said, noting that the phase 2 trials would be completed on August 3.
Regulatory approval of the vaccine is expected in August-September, he said.
Global coronavirus scenario
Coronavirus cases were first reported in China in December late last year in Wuhan.
The World Health Organization (WHO) declared it a pandemic on March 11. It has spread to all corners of the world since then.
On March 11, 2020, the WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic.
There have been more than 13,810,534 confirmed coronavirus cases and over 590,005 deaths in 188 countries, according to the Coronavirus Resource Centre at the Johns Hopkins University.