New Delhi, Jun 22: India recorded less than 50,000 new coronavirus infections, the lowest in 91 days, taking the total tally of cases to 2,99,77,861, while active cases fell below 7 lakh after 79 days, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Tuesday.

A total of 42,640 Covid infections were reported in a day, while the death toll climbed to 3,89,302 with 1,167 daily fatalities, the lowest in 68 days.

According to the data published at 7 am, India administered 86.16 lakh vaccine doses, the highest ever single-day vaccination achieved in the world so far, the Health Ministry said.

Cumulatively, 28.87 crore vaccine doses have been administered so far under the nationwide inoculation drive.

The active cases have further declined to 6,62,521, comprising 2.21 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has improved to 96.49 per cent, the data updated at 8 am showed.

A net decline of 40,366 cases has been recorded in the caseload in a span of 24 hours.

Also, 16,64,360 tests were conducted on Monday, taking the total cumulative tests conducted so far for detection of COVID-19 in the country to 39,40,72,142, while the daily positivity rate has declined to 2.56 per cent. It has been less than 5 per cent for 15 consecutive days, the ministry said.

The weekly positivity rate has declined to 3.21 per cent.

Recoveries continued to outnumber daily new cases for 40 consecutive days.

The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 2,89,26,038, while the case fatality rate stands at 1.30 per cent, the data stated.

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.

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Patna (PTI): In a major expansion of the Cabinet of Bihar's first BJP-led government, JD(U) supremo Nitish Kumar's son Nishant Kumar and 31 others took oath as ministers on Thursday in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

Altogether 32 leaders, drawn from all constituents of the five-party NDA in the state, were administered the oath of office by Governor Lt Gen (Retd) Syed Ata Hasnain at a grand ceremony that was also attended by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Union Health Minister J P Nadda and BJP president Nitin Nabin.

Prominent inductees included Nishant Kumar, the son of JD(U) president Nitish Kumar, who stepped down as chief minister last month to enter the Rajya Sabha.

The BJP, which is the single largest party in the 243-member assembly with 89 MLAs, has 15 ministers, who took oath on Thursday.

Most of the inductees were those who were part of the Nitish Kumar cabinet formed in November last year after the NDA stormed back to power in the assembly polls.

The JD(U) is represented by a total of 15 ministers, 13 of whom took the oath at the Gandhi Maidan on Thursday. Vijay Kumar Chaudhary and Bijendra Prasad Yadav had taken oath in April along with Samrat Choudhary and were designated as deputy chief ministers.

Sanjay Kumar Singh and Sanjay Kumar Paswan, both from the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) headed by Union minister Chirag Paswan, are back as ministers, and so are Santosh Kumar Suman and Deepak Prakash, sons of Union minister Jitan Ram Manjhi of the Hindustani Awam Morcha and Upendra Kushwaha of the Rashtriya Lok Morcha, respectively.