India saw a single-day rise of 15,786 new COVID-19 cases, taking the tally to 3,41,43,236, while the active cases have declined to 1,75,745, the lowest in 232 days, according to the Union health ministry's data updated on Friday.
The death toll has climbed to 4,53,042 with 231 daily fatalities, according to the data updated at 8 am.
The daily rise in new coronavirus infections has been below 30,000 for 28 straight days and less than 50,000 daily new cases have been reported for 117 consecutive days now.
The active cases have increased to 1,75,745 comprising 0.51 per cent of the total infections, the lowest since March 2020, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate was recorded at 98.16 per cent, the highest since March 2020, the health ministry said.
A decrease of 3,086 cases has been recorded in the total active number of COVID-19 cases in a span of 24 hours.
Also, 13,24,263 tests were conducted on Thursday, taking the total cumulative tests conducted so far for detection of COVID-19 in the country to 59,70,66,481.
The daily positivity rate was recorded at 1.19 per cent. It has been less than three per cent for the last 53 days.
The weekly positivity rate was also recorded at 1.31 per cent. It has been below three per cent for the last 119 days, according to the health ministry.
The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 3,35,14,449, while the case fatality rate was recorded at 1.33 per cent.
The cumulative doses administered in the country so far under the nationwide COVID-19 vaccination drive has exceeded 100.59 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 231 new fatalities include 118 from Kerala and 39 from Maharashtra.
A total of 4,53,042 deaths have been reported so far in the country, including 1,39,925 from Maharashtra, 37,984 from Karnataka, 35,968 from Tamil Nadu, 27,202 from Kerala, 25,090 from Delhi, 22,899 from Uttar Pradesh and 19,021 from West Bengal.
The health 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.