New Delhi: India added 8,954 new coronavirus infections taking the total tally of COVID-19 cases to 3,45,96,776, while the active cases were recorded at less than a lakh after 547 days, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated Wednesday.
The death toll climbed to 4,69,247 with 267 fresh fatalities, according to the data updated at 8 am.
The daily rise in new coronavirus infections has been below 20,000 for 54 straight days and less than 50,000 daily new cases have been reported for 156 consecutive days now.
The active cases declined to 99,023 comprising 0.29 per cent of the total infections, the lowest since March 2020, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has improved to 98.36 per cent, the highest since March 2020, the ministry said.
A decrease of 1,520 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours.
India’s COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark August 7, 2020, 30 lakh August 23, 40 lakh September 5 and 50 lakh September 16. It went past 60 lakh September 28, 70 lakh October 11, crossed 80 lakh October 29, 90 lakh November 20 and surpassed the one-crore mark December 19. India crossed the grim milestone of two crore May 4 and three crore June 23.
