A single day rise of 67,208 new coronavirus infections were recorded taking India's total tally of COVID-19 cases to 2,97,00,313, while the active cases declined to 8,26,740, the lowest after 71 days, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Thursday.

The COVID-19 death toll climbed to 3,81,903 with 2,330 fresh fatalities, the data updated at 8 am showed

The active cases declined to 8,26,740 comprising 2.78 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has improved to 95.93 per cent.

A net decline of 38,692 cases has been recorded in the COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours.

As many as 19,31,249 tests were conducted on Wednesday taking the total cumulative tests conducted so far for detection of COVID-19 in the country to 38,52,38,220.

The daily positivity rate  was recorded 3.48 per cent . It has been less than 5 per cent for the 10th consecutive day, the ministry said, adding the weekly positivity rate has declined to 3.99 per cent.

Recoveries continue to outnumber daily new cases for the 35th consecutive day. The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 2,84,91,670, while the case fatality rate has increased to 1.29 per cent, the data stated.

Cumulatively, 26,55,19,251 COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered so far under the Nationwide Vaccination Drive.    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.

The 2,330 new fatalities include 1,236 from Maharashtra, 270 from Tamil Nadu, 148 from Karnataka and 147 from Kerala.

A total of 3,81,903 deaths have been reported so far in the country including 1,15,390 from Maharashtra, 33,296 from Karnataka, 30,338 from Tamil Nadu, 24,876 from Delhi, 21,963 from Uttar Pradesh, 17,118 from West Bengal, 15,698 from Punjab and 13,354 from Chhattisgarh.

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.