India records 44,684 fresh Covid-19 cases, tally crosses 8.77 million

On Saturday, India recorded 44,684 new cases of the coronavirus disease, which pushed the nationwide tally to 8,773,479, according to Union health ministry.

The number of active cases are 480,719, while 81,635,72 patients have been discharged from hospitals, the health ministry data showed at 8 am.

India also reported 520 fresh fatalities due to the disease which took the death toll to 129,188.

The health ministry had said on Friday that India’s active Covid-19 cases remained below five lakh, or 5.55 per cent of the total caseload. This has been made possible by the trend of Covid-19 recoveries exceeding new cases, which has ensured a total net reduction of the active caseload, it underlined.

The ministry also said that the recovery rate has reached 92.97 per cent. It further said that 77.83 per cent of the new recovered cases are observed to be concentrated in 10 states and union territories.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation (WHO) on Friday announced that it will set up a global centre for traditional medicine in India. The announcement was made by WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus through a video message.

“This new centre will support WHO’s efforts to implement the WHO traditional medicine strategy 2014-2023 which aims to support countries in developing policies and action plans to strengthen the role of traditional medicine as part of their journey to universal health coverage and a healthier, fairer and safer world,” said Ghebreyesus.

The WHO chief also lauded Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his commitment to the universal coverage under Ayushman Bharat and evidence-based promotion of traditional medicines to achieve health related objectives.

PM Modi hailed the announcement and expressed confidence that just like the country has emerged as the ‘pharmacy of the world’, the WHO institution will become a centre for global wellness.