Daily Covid-19 cases in country lowest in 259 days, death toll at 458,880

India added 10,423 new coronavirus cases, the lowest in 259 days, while the active cases declined to 1,53,776, the lowest in 250 days, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Tuesday.

With the fresh cases, India's COVID-19 tally climbed to 3,42,96,237.

The death toll climbed to 4,58,880 with 443 fresh fatalities, according to the data updated at 8 am.

The daily rise in new coronavirus infections has been below 20,000 for 25 straight days and less than 50,000 daily new cases have been reported for 128 consecutive days now.

The active cases comprise 0.45 per cent of the total infections, the lowest since March 2020, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate was recorded at 98.21 per cent, the highest since March 2020, the ministry said.

A decline of 5,041 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours.

The daily positivity rate was recorded at 1.03 per cent. It has been less than two per cent for last 29 days. The weekly positivity rate was also recorded at 1.16 per cent. It has been below two per cent for the last 39 days, according to the ministry.

The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 3,36,83,581, while the case fatality rate was recorded at 1.34 per cent.

The cumulative doses administered in the country so far under the nationwide COVID-19 vaccination drive has exceeded 106.85 crore.

India's COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 2020, 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 443 new fatalities include 368 from Kerala, 20 from Tamil Nadu and 10 from Maharashtra. Kerala has been reconciling covid deaths since the past few days.

Of the 368 deaths in Kerala, 78 were reported over the last few days, 232 were those which were not confirmed until June 18 last year due to lack of adequate documentation and 58 were designated as Covid deaths after receiving appeals based on the new guidelines of the Centre and Supreme Court directions, a state government release said on Monday.

A total of 4,58,880 deaths have been reported so far in the country including 1,40,226 from Maharashtra, 38,084 from Karnataka, 36,136 from Tamil Nadu, 32,049 from Kerala, 25,091 from Delhi, 22,900 from Uttar Pradesh and 19,149 from West Bengal.

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.