With 14,348 people testing positive for coronavirus in a day, India's total tally of COVID-19 cases rose to 3,42,46,157, while the active cases were recorded at 1,61,334, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Friday.
The death toll climbed to 4,57,191 with 805 fresh fatalities, including 708 from Kerala, according to the data updated at 8 am.
Kerala has been reconciling Covid deaths in the past few days, ministry officials said.
Of the 708 deaths, 56 were reported in the last few days, 542 were those which were not confirmed until June 18 last year due to lack of adequate documentation and 110 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 Thursday.
The ministry said that daily rise in new coronavirus infections has been below 30,000 for 35 straight days and less than 50,000 daily new cases have been reported for 124 consecutive days now.
The active cases comprise 0.47 per cent of the total infections, the lowest since March 2020, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate was recorded at 98.19 per cent, it said.
An increase of 345 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours.
The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 3,36,27,632, while the case fatality rate has increased to 1.34 per cent.
The daily positivity rate was recorded at 1.12 per cent. It has been less than two per cent for last 25 days. The weekly positivity rate was also recorded at 1.18 per cent. It has been below two per cent for the last 35 days, according to the ministry.
The cumulative doses administered in the country so far under the nationwide COVID-19 vaccination drive has exceeded 104.82 crores.
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.
A total of 4,57,191 deaths have been reported so far in the country including 1,40,134 from Maharashtra, 38,054 from Karnataka, 36,072 from Tamil Nadu, 30,685 from Kerala, 25,091 from Delhi, 22,900 from Uttar Pradesh and 19,105 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.
