With 16,866 new coronavirus infections being reported in a day, India's tally of COVID-19 cases rose to 4,39,05,621, while the daily positivity rate crossed 7 per cent again after a gap of 168 days, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Monday.

The active cases have declined to 1,50,877, while the death toll has climbed to  5,26,074  with 41 new fatalities, the data updated at 8 am stated.

The  active cases comprises  0.34 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate  was recorded at 98.46 per cent, the health ministry said.

A decrease  of 1,323 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of  24 hours.

The daily positivity rate was recorded at 7.03 per cent. The weekly positivity rate was 4.49 per cent, according to the health ministry.

Totally, 87.27 crore tests have been carried out with  2,39,751 tests being conducted in a span of 24 hours.

The number of recoveries surged to 4,32,28,670, while the case fatality rate was recorded at 1.20 per cent.

According to the ministry, 202.17 crore doses of Covid vaccine have been administered in the country so far under the nationwide vaccination drive.

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,  three crore on June 23 last year and four crore on January 25 this year.

The 41 new fatalities include 13 from Kerala, six each from Maharashtra and West Bengal, four from Punjab, two each from Delhi and Sikkim and one each from Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Manipur, Nagaland, Odisha, Tripura and Uttar Pradesh.