Picture used for illustrative purposes only.

India recorded 18,346 new COVID-19 infections in the last 24 hours, the lowest in 209 days, taking its overall virus tally to 33,853,048, while the active cases declined to 252,902, the lowest in 201 days.

Active cases presently constitute 0.75 per cent of the country's total positive cases.

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A total of 29,639 patients recovered in a day, taking the cumulative tally of recovered patients to 33,150,886. Consequently, India's recovery rate stands at 97.93 per cent — the highest since March 2020, the Ministry data said.

According to data from the Union Health Ministry data on Tuesday the death toll climbed to 449,260 with 263 fresh fatalities. The daily rise in new coronavirus infections has remained below 30,000 for 11th consecutive days.

The Union Health Ministry data on Tuesday the death toll climbed to 449,260 with 263 fresh fatalities .

The health ministry said in its statement that the weekly positivity rate at 1.66 per cent remains less than 3 per cent for the last 102 days now, the daily positivity rate is 1.61 per cent, having remained below 3 per cent for last 36 days and below 5 per cent for 119 consecutive days now.

While Kerala, which has been contributing over 60% to India’s coronavirus tally, has started witnessing a declining trend in daily virus infections, Mizoram and some parts of Maharashtra have seen a spike in new cases in recent days.

According to the Health Ministry data, the testing capacity across the country continues to be expanded, and the last 24 hours saw a total of 1,141,642 tests being conducted, taking the total to 575,394,042.

Several states have extended Covid-19 restrictions ahead of the festival season in order to limit the spread of the virus.