India logged 53,256 new coronavirus infections, the lowest in 88 days, taking the total tally of COVID-19 cases to 2,99,35,221, while the active cases further reduced to 7,02,887, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Monday.

The death toll climbed to 3,88,135 with 1,422 fresh fatalities, the lowest in 65 days.

The active cases now comprise 2.35 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has improved to 96.36 per cent, the data updated at 8 am showed.

A net decline of 26,356 cases has been recorded in the COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours.

As many as 13,88,699 tests were conducted on Sunday taking the total cumulative tests conducted so far for detection of COVID-19 in the country to 39,24,07,782.

The daily positivity rate was recorded at 3.83 per cent . It has been less than 5 per cent for 14 consecutive days, the ministry said, adding the weekly positivity rate has declined to 3.32 per cent.

Recoveries continue to outnumber daily new cases for the 39th consecutive day.The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 2,88,44,199, while the case fatality rate has increased to 1.30 per cent, the data stated.

Cumulatively, 28,0036,898 COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered so far.

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 2 crore on May 4.

The 1,422 new fatalities include 605 from Maharashtra, 182 from Tamil Nadu, 120 from Karnataka and 112 from Kerala.

A total of 3,88,135 deaths have been reported so far in the country including 1,17,961 from Maharashtra, 33,885 from Karnataka, 31,197 from Tamil Nadu, 24,914 from Delhi, 22,178 from Uttar Pradesh, 17,348 from West Bengal, 15,826 from Punjab and 13,387 from Chhattisgarh.

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.