The daily new COVID-19 cases fell below 10,000 for the second time this month taking India's tally of cases to 1,08,47,304, while fresh fatalities remained below 100 for the fourth consecutive day, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Tuesday.

A total of 9,110 new infections were reported in a span of 24 hours. The death toll increased to 1,55,158 with 78 daily new fatalities, the data updated at 8 am showed.

The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 1,05,48,521 pushing the national COVID-19 recovery rate to 97.25 per cent, while the COVID-19 case fatality rate stands at 1.43 per cent.

The COVID-19 active caseload remained below 2 lakh.

There are 1,43,625 active cases of coronavirus infections in the country which comprise 1.32 per cent of the total caseload, 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.

According to the ICMR, 20,25,87,752 samples have been tested up to February 8 with 6,87,138 samples being tested on Monday.

The 78 new fatalities include 16 from Kerala, 15 from Maharashtra and 11 from Punjab.

A total of 1,55,158 deaths have been reported so far in the country including 51,325 from Maharashtra followed by 12,387 from Tamil Nadu, 12,239 from Karnataka, 10,882 from Delhi, 10,209 from West Bengal, 8,691 from Uttar Pradesh and 7,160 from Andhra Pradesh.

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.