New Delhi (PTI): India logged 34,973 new coronavirus infections taking the total tally of COVID-19 cases to 3,31,74,954, while the active cases declined to 3,90,646, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Friday.

The death toll climbed to 4,42,009 with 260 fresh fatalities, according to the data updated at 8 am.

The active cases comprise 1.18 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate was recorded at 97.49 per cent, the ministry said.

India's COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 2020, 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 two crore on May 4 and three crore on June 23.

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Bengaluru (PTI): Trends show Congress and BJP have maintained leads respectively in Karnataka's Bagalkot and Davanagere South Assembly seats, where counting of votes is underway on Monday, for the bypolls held for two seats on April 9.

The polls were necessitated by the deaths of senior Congress MLAs H Y Meti (Bagalkot) and Shamanur Shivashankarappa (Davanagere South).

According to the Election Commission, Congress party's Umesh Meti was ahead of BJP's Veerabhadrayya Charantimath by a margin of 9,969 votes in Bagalkot.

In Davanagere South, BJP's Srinivas T Dasakariyappa was leading over Congress party's Samarth Mallikarjun by a margin of 8,539 votes.

Nine and 25 candidates were in the fray, respectively in the Bagalkot and Davanagere South Assembly segments.