India reported 41,383 new COVID-19 cases, 507 deaths in last 24 hours, data from the Union Health Ministry confirmed on Thursday. The country’s infection tally now stands at 3,12,57,720, while the death toll has been pushed to 4,18,987. 

Active cases have increased by 2,224 to 4,09,394 and they make up 1.31% of total cases. 38,652 patients recovered from the infection in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of recoveries to 3,04,29,339. 

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The government administered 22,77,679 doses of COVID-19 vaccines in the last 24 hours, pushing the country’s total vaccination tally to 41,78,51,151. 

According to data from the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), 17,18,439 tests were conducted in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of tests to 45,09,11,712.  

India has been recording gradual a decline in daily infections and deaths in recent months after a crippling second wave of COVID ravaged the country in April and May. 

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 two crore on May 4 and three crore on June 23.

However, experts have cast doubts over the varacity of India’s official COVID cases and deaths, estimating the actual tallies to be much higher. In a study published on Tuesday, which analysed data from the start of the pandemic to June this year, American think tank, Centre for Global Development, estimated between 3.4 to 4.7 million people have died from the infection in the country.

The more contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus, which was first reported in India in October, 2020 has now spread to over 100 countries and is the dominant strain globally.