New Delhi: India saw a single-day rise of 8,774 new coronavirus infections, taking the country's total tally to 3,45,72,523, while the active cases have declined to 1,05,691, the lowest in 543 days, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Sunday.

The death toll has climbed to 4,68,554, with 621 daily fatalities, according to the data updated at 8 am.

The daily rise in new coronavirus infections has been below 20,000 for 51 straight days and less than 50,000 daily new cases have been reported for 154 consecutive days now.

The active cases have declined to 1,05,691 comprising 0.31 per cent of the total infections, the lowest since March 2020, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate was recorded at 98.34 per cent, the highest since March 2020, the Health Ministry said.

A decrease of 1,328 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours.

The daily positivity rate was recorded at 0.80 per cent. It has been less than 2 per cent for last 55 days

Weekly positivity rate was also recorded at 0.85 per cent. It has been below 1 per cent for the last 14 days, according to the health ministry.

The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 3,39,98,278, while the case fatality rate has increased to 1.36 per cent.

The cumulative doses administered in the country so far under the nationwide COVID-19 vaccination drive has exceeded 121.94 crore.

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.

The 621 new fatalities include 554 from Kerala and 17 from Maharashtra. Kerala has been reconciling Covid deaths for the past few days, so the death tally of the state is high.

A total of 4,68,554 deaths have been reported so far in the country, including 1,40,908 from Maharashtra, 39,679 from Kerala, 38,196 from Karnataka, 36,454 from Tamil Nadu, 25,096 from Delhi, 22,910 from Uttar Pradesh and 19,450 from West Bengal.

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.

PTI