India's COVID-19 tally went past 71 lakh with 66,732 fresh cases, while the number of people who have recuperated crossed 61 lakh, pushing the recovery rate to 86.36 per cent, according to the Union health ministry data updated on Monday.

The country's COVID-19 caseload stands at 71,20,538. The death toll climbed to 1,09,150 with the virus claiming 816 lives in a day, the data updated at 8 am showed.

For the fourth day in a row, the number of active COVID-19 cases remained below 9 lakh.

There are 8,61,853 active cases of coronavirus infection in the country which account for 12.10 per cent of the total caseload, the data showed.

The case fatality rate due to the coronavirus infection has dropped to 1.53 per cent.

India's COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 30 lakh on August 23 and 40 lakh on September 5. It went past 50 lakh on September 16, 60 lakh on September 28 and crossed 70 lakh on October 11.

According to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), a total of 8,78,72,093 samples had been tested up to October 11. Of these, 9,94,851 samples were tested on Sunday.

The 816 fatalities include 309 from Maharashtra, 75 from Karnataka, 65 from Tamil Nadu, 59 from West Bengal, 41 from Uttar Pradesh, 35 from Punjab, 30 from Andhra Pradesh and 29 from Delhi.

Of the total 1,09,150 deaths reported so far in the country, 40,349 are from Maharashtra, 10,252 from Tamil Nadu, 9,966 from Karnataka, 6,394 from Uttar Pradesh, 6,224 from Andhra Pradesh, 5,769 from Delhi, 5,622 from West Bengal, 3,833 from Punjab and 3,566 from Gujarat.

The health ministry stressed that more than 70 per cent of the deaths occurred due to comorbidities.

"Our figures are being reconciled with the Indian Council of Medical Research," the ministry said on its website, adding that state-wise distribution of figures is subject to further verification and reconciliation.