Daily new Covid-19 cases in the country dipped below 50,000 after around 40 days, taking the country's virus tally to 4,26,31,421, while the active cases declined to 5,37,045, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Sunday.

India logged 44,877 infections, while the death toll climbed to 5,08,665 with 684 fresh fatalities, the data updated at 8 am stated.

A total of 37,379 people had tested positive for the infection in a day on January 4.

The daily Covid-19 cases were recorded less than one lakh for seven consecutive days.

The active cases comprise 1.26 per cent of the total infections, while the national Covid-19 recovery rate has further improved to 97.55 per cent, the ministry said.

A reduction of 73,398 cases has been recorded in the active Covid-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours.

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 last year.