India recorded less than 50,000 new coronavirus infections, the lowest in 91 days, taking the total tally of cases to 2,99,77,861, while active cases fell below 7 lakh after 79 days, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Tuesday.

A total of 42,640 Covid infections were reported in a day, while the death toll climbed to 3,89,302 with 1,167 daily fatalities, the lowest in 68 days.

According to the data published at 7 am, India administered 86.16 lakh vaccine doses, the highest ever single-day vaccination achieved in the world so far, the Health Ministry said.

Cumulatively, 28.87 crore vaccine doses have been administered so far under the nationwide inoculation drive.

The active cases have further declined to 6,62,521, comprising 2.21 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has improved to 96.49 per cent, the data updated at 8 am showed.

A net decline of 40,366 cases has been recorded in the caseload in a span of 24 hours.

Also, 16,64,360 tests were conducted on Monday, taking the total cumulative tests conducted so far for detection of COVID-19 in the country to 39,40,72,142, while the daily positivity rate has declined to 2.56 per cent. It has been less than 5 per cent for 15 consecutive days, the ministry said.

The weekly positivity rate has declined to 3.21 per cent.

Recoveries continued to outnumber daily new cases for 40 consecutive days.

The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 2,89,26,038, while the case fatality rate stands at 1.30 per cent, the data stated.

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.