India on Saturday recorded 2,961 Covid infections in the last 24 hours while active cases dipped to 30,041 from 33,232 a day earlier, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Saturday. The death toll has increased to 5,31,659 with 17 fatalities, which includes nine reconciled by Kerala, the data updated at 8 am stated. The country's Covid infection tally was recorded at 4.49 crore (4,49,67,250) with the fresh cases. The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 4,44,05,550 and active cases now comprise 0.07 per cent of the total infections. The national Covid recovery rate has been recorded at 98.75 per cent while the case fatality rate was recorded at 1.18 per cent, the ministry said.
According to the health ministry's website, 220.66 crore doses of Covid vaccine have been administered in the country so far under the nationwide vaccination drive, news agency PTI reported.
Covid Cases In Delhi
According to data shared by the national capital government's health department, Delhi recorded 142 fresh Covid cases with a positivity rate of 5.43 per cent and one Covid-linked death on Friday. After this, Delhi’s case tally surged to 20,39,883 and the death toll rose to 26,638, a health department bulletin said, as reported by news agency PTI.
The total number of active cases stood at 1,290 and of these, 1,019 patients were in home isolation, the official bulletin said.
However, only 138 of the 7,976 Covid beds in the national capital were occupied, according to the official bulletin, as reported by PTI.
World Health Organisation Declassifies COVID-19 Pandemic
Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation (WHO) on Friday agreed to declassify the Covid-19 pandemic as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC). At its 15th meeting on Covid-19 on Thursday, WHO's International Health Regulations Emergency Committee addressed the pandemic, and WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus agreed that the public health emergency of international concern, or PHEIC, proclamation should be lifted.
“For more than a year the pandemic has been on a downward trend,” Tedros stated.
“This trend has allowed most countries to return to life as we knew it before Covid-19,” Tedros said, adding that: “Yesterday, the emergency committee met for the 15th time and recommended to me that I declare an end to the public health emergency of international concern. I have accepted that advice.”
"As we speak, thousands of people around the world are fighting for their lives in intensive care units. And millions more continue to live with the debilitating effects of post-Covid conditions," he stated.
Highlighting that the virus is here to stay, Tredors stated: "The worst thing any country could do now is to use this news as a reason to let down its guard, to dismantle the systems it has built, or to send the message to its people that COVID19 is nothing to worry about."