India reported 35,499 COVID-19 cases and 447 fresh fatalities in the last 24 hours, taking the infection tally to 3,19,69,954 and the death toll to 4,28,309, as per Union Health Ministry on Monday.

The number of active cases has declined to 4,02,188 which comprise 1.27% of the total infections, and the national COVID-19 recovery rate has improved to 97.39%, data updated by the ministry at 8 AM showed.

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A decrease of 4,634 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours.

The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 3,11,39,457, while the case fatality rate stands at 1.34%, the data stated.

As many as 13,71,871 COVID-19 tests were conducted in the country on Sunday, taking the total number of such examinations so far to 48,17,67,232.

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The daily positivity rate was recorded at 2.59%. It has been less than 3% for the last 14 days, the ministry said, adding that the weekly positivity rate was recorded at 2.35%.

Cumulatively, 50.86 crore COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered under the nationwide vaccination drive till Monday morning.

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India’s COVID-19 infection tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7 last year, 30 lakh on August 23, 40 lakh on September 5, 50 lakh on September 16, 60 lakh on September 28, 70 lakh on October 11, 80 lakh on October 29, 90 lakh on November 20 and one crore on December 19.

The country crossed the grim milestone of two crore cases on May 4 and three crore on June 23.

A recent study by ICMR involving 98 people, 18 of whom had inadvertently received Covishield as the first dose and Covaxin as the second in Uttar Pradesh showed that combining these two COVID-19 vaccines elicited better immunogenicity than two doses of the same vaccine.

The study also found that immunisation with a combination of Covishield and Covaxin was safe and the adverse effects were also found to be similar when compared to the same dose regimen.