India on Thursday recorded 95,735 new cases of the coronavirus disease which pushed the overall tally to 44,65,863, according to Union health ministry data.
The number of active cases stand at 9,19,018, while the number of patients discharged from the hospital has reached 34,71,783.
The disease also claimed 1,172 lives in the last 24 hours, which pushed the overall death toll to 75,062, the health ministry data showed.
The country is inching towards another grim milestone of 1,00,000 daily Covid-19 cases. On Wednesday, it added 95,950 new cases of the disease, data compiled by HT from across the states showed. So far, no other country has crossed the one lakh-mark, or even came close to it.
The health ministry, meanwhile, said on Wednesday that the country’s recovery rate has further improved to 77.77 per cent. It also said that 61 per cent of the Wednesday’s cases were reported from only five states.
These states are Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu, the ministry said.
Health minister Harsh Vardhan said that the Covid-19 pandemic has taught the world the importance of protecting precious health gains, and stressed on investing in health and building a robust healthcare delivery system with special focus on rural areas.
Representing India at the 73rd session of World Health Organisation (WHO) South East Asia Region on Wednesday, he highlighted the giant strides the country made under the guidance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to protect the lives and livelihood of its citizens from the pandemic.
“Data suggests that Covid-19 has already derailed a lot of our efforts and is taking us back to where we were 20 years ago. This is a stark reality and we need to take cognizance. On our part, we left no stones unturned to contain and mitigate the virus. I would say India has responded well to the challenges posed by the pandemic,” he said at the virtual session.
