The active cases were the lowest in 156 days, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has increased to 97.68 per cent, the highest since March 2020, the ministry said.
The active cases further declined to 11,21,671 comprising 3.83 per cent of the total infections.
The health ministry stressed that more than 70 per cent of the deaths occurred due to comorbidities.
As many as 29,689 new coronavirus infections took the country's tally of COVID-19 cases to 3,14,40,951 while 415 fresh fatalities pushed the death toll to 4,21,382, the data updated at 8 am showed.
COVAXIN, developed by Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech in collaboration with Indian Council of Medical Research and National Institute of Virology, has got the nod for human clinical trials from the Drug Controller General of India
India saw a single-day rise of 12,885 new COVID-19 cases, taking the country's infection tally to 3,43,21,025, while the count of active cases has declined to 1,48,579, the lowest in 253 days, according to Union Health Ministry data on Thursday.
A resolution commemorating the life of Indian human rights defender Father Stan Swamy and seeking an independent investigation into the death of the Jesuit priest has been introduced in the US Congress, Congressman Juan Vargas has said.
Recoveries continue to outnumber daily new cases for 24 consecutive days.
National Anti-Doping Agency Director General Navin Agarwal says all the Rio Olympics-bound sportspersons have undergone testing for banned substances and are dope-free. He, however, conceded that there were issues regarding testing of a few Rio-bound sportspersons as they were not available at the 'whereabouts' provided by them as mandated under the Anti-Doping Administration Management System (ADAMS) of the World Anti-Doping Agency, but NADA was able to get their testing done later on.
The death toll due to the disease has climbed to 4,43,928 with 431 daily fatalities being recorded, according to data updated by the ministry at 8 am.
A record 3,689 daily Covid-19 fatalities pushed India's death toll to 2,15,542, while the infection count reached to 1,95,57,457 with 3,92,488 more people being confirmed positive for the disease, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Sunday.
The recovery rate has increased to 76.62 per cent, while the fatality rate has declined to 1.78 per cent.
In response to a question on whether younger population were getting more affected, Indian Council of Medical Research Director General Dr Balram Bhargava said the comparison of data during the first and the second wave of COVID-19 has shown that there is not much age difference.
India is the third worst-hit nation by the pandemic after the US and Brazil in terms of cases and deaths.
Reaching India in time to be able to complete the mandatory quarantine period before the exam, arranging a stay before taking a flight back home, additional expenses, the risk of contracting COVID-19 and being quarantined again back home, are among several concerns on the mind of the aspirants.
US-India Business Council President Nisha Biswal believes once the economic activity and demand resumes, India could hold the potential for diversification of supply chains and manufacturing.
A court dropped criminal proceedings against Ketan Desai after the CBI failed to obtain the mandatory permission from the government to prosecute him.
'...to address the serious faultlines that had got exposed during the pandemic.' 'If the economy is looking up this year, we could have been allocated an increase of at least 20%.'
Dr Mishra further explained the effect of hybrid immunity on the vaccinated population and said that it is likely to give protection to people along with the Indian vaccines administered.
Maharashtra has reported 3,75,799 coronavirus cases, the highest among states in the country.
However, the tender criteria demands that an entity must be eligible to conduct Beyond Visual Line of Sight operations in order to become eligible. Currently, no drone companies are eligible to do BVLOS operations, reports Arindam Majumder.
Earlier on Wednesday, a committee formed by the Haryana government found criminal negligence on the part of the hospital, causing the death of the seven-year-old girl, who was suffering from dengue.
India reported 1,20,529 fresh COVID-19 cases, the lowest single-day rise in infections in around two months, taking the infection tally to 2,86,94,879, according to the Union health ministry data.
Seropositivity was the highest in the age group of 18-45 years (43.3 per cent), followed by those between 46-60 years (39.5 per cent) and it was the lowest among those aged above 60 (17.2 per cent).
This is the seventh consecutive day that COVID-19 cases have increased by more than 50,000.
The COVID-19 case fatality rate due to the coronavirus infection has further dropped to 1.66 per cent.
With this latest spike, the total cases in the country stand at 16,38,871.
People must also avoid mass gatherings, and new year celebrations need to be at low intensity, the government said.
While some experts believe that a large part of India is still vulnerable to the virus that could trigger a third wave, others feel the country is not likely to be engulfed by another deadly wave unless a new variant emerges.
The daily positivity rate was recorded 3.24 per cent. It has been less than 5 per cent for 11 consecutive days, the ministry said, adding the weekly positivity rate has declined to 3.80 per cent.
These include the 25 cases which were announced till Thursday. "All the 29 persons are in physical isolation in health facilities," an official said.
There are 8,15,538 active cases of coronavirus infection in the country.
From 2.82 per cent over a month earlier, India's COVID-19 case fatality rate declined to 2.72 per cent on July 10 and has further reduced to 2.49 per cent presently.
Union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan said 50 districts account for 66 per cent of the total caseload and the COVID-19 case fatality rate has progressively declined to 2.10 per cent, the lowest since the first lockdown was imposed on March 25.
This is the seventh consecutive day that COVID-19 cases have increased by more than 45,000.
The Airports Authority of India, which manages the Goa airport, said in an advisory that the passengers who do not have a COVID-19 negative certificate will have to undergo 14 days' home or paid quarantine on arrival in the state.
The minister said whatever is being done now are "the perfect scientific advice".
The count of active cases has further reduced to 24,19,907, which is 8.84 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has improved to 90.01 per cent, the data showed.
India's apex drug regulator has granted permission for conducting the phase II/III clinical trial of Bharat Biotech's Covaxin COVID-19 vaccine in the age group of 2 to 18 years, the Union Health Ministry said on Thursday.
It is learnt that the camp office in Lviv would be able to coordinate the evacuation of Indians to Poland and Hungary while the one at Chernivtsi would facilitate exit to Romania.
