With 553 fresh fatalities, India recorded the lowest daily death toll in around 90 days while 34,703 new cases of coronavirus were reported, the lowest in 111 days, the Union health ministry said on Tuesday.
With the fresh cases, the total tally of COVID-19 cases climbed to 3,06,19,932, while the death toll climbed to 4,03,281.
The active cases further declined to 4,64,357, the lowest in 101 days, and comprise 1.52 per cent of the total infections.
The national COVID-19 recovery rate has improved to 97.17 per cent, the data updated at 8 am showed.
A net decline of 17,714 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours.
Also, 16,47,424 tests were conducted on Monday taking the total cumulative tests conducted so far for detection of COVID-19 in the country to 42,14,24,881.
The daily positivity rate was recorded at 2.11 per cent.It has been less than three per cent for 15 consecutive days, the ministry said, adding the weekly positivity rate has declined to 2.40 per cent.
Recoveries continue to outnumber daily new cases for the 54th consecutive day.
The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 2,97,52,294, while the case fatality rate stands at 1.32 per cent, the data stated.
Cumulative vaccine doses administered so far has reached 35.75 crore under Nationwide Vaccination Drive.
India's COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 30 lakh on August 23, 40 lakh on September 5 and 50 lakh on September 16. It went past 60 lakh on September 28, 70 lakh on October 11, crossed 80 lakh on October 29, 90 lakh on November 20 and surpassed the one-crore mark on December 19. India crossed the grim milestone of two crore on May 4 and three crore on June 23.
The 553 new fatalities include 106 from Maharashtra, 102 from Kerala and 67 from Karnataka.
A total of 4,03,281 deaths have been reported so far in the country including 1,23,136 from Maharashtra, 35,434 from Karnataka, 33,059 from Tamil Nadu, 24,997 from Delhi, 22,646 from Uttar Pradesh, 17,817 from West Bengal and 16,122 from Punjab.
The ministry stressed that more than 70 per cent of the deaths occurred due to comorbidities.
'Our figures are being reconciled with the Indian Council of Medical Research,' the ministry said on its website, adding that state-wise distribution of figures is subject to further verification and reconciliation.
