With India recording more recoveries from COVID-19 daily than the number of new infections, the active caseload dropped to 2.50 lakh and accounted for merely 2.43 per cent of the total cases, the Union Health Ministry said on Saturday.

While 19,079 persons in India were found to be COVID-19 positive in a day, 22,926 new recoveries were registered during the same period. This has led to a net decline of 4,071 cases in the total active caseload in a span of 24 hours.

Five states -- Kerala, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Chhattisgarh -- contribute 62 per cent of the total active cases.

At 101, India has recorded "one of the lowest new cases per million population in the last 7 days. Brazil, Russia, France, Italy, USA and the UK have much higher cases per million population reported in the last 7 days," the ministry said.

India's cumulative recoveries are inching closer to one crore. The cumulative recovered cases have surpassed 99 lakh (99,06,387).

"The gap between recoveries and active cases is steadily increasing and presently stands at 96,56,204," it said.

The ministry said 78.64 per cent of the new recovered cases are contributed by 10 states and union territories.

Kerala leads with 5,111 persons recovering from COVID-19, while Maharashtra recorded 4,279 recoveries. West Bengal registered another 1,496 daily recoveries.

Ten states and UTs have contributed 80.56 per cent of the new cases.

Kerala reported 4,991 cases in the last 24 hours. Maharashtra registered another 3,524 new cases on Friday, while West Bengal recorded 1,153 new cases.

It said 224 case fatalities that have been reported in the past 24 hours, 75.45 per cent of them are from 10 states and UTs.

Maharashtra reported 59 deaths or 26.33 per cent of the new fatalities. West Bengal saw a fatality count of 26 and Kerala 23, the ministry said.