New Delhi, Dec 14 (IANS): India recorded 27,071 new coronavirus infections in the past 24 hours and 336 deaths that took the overall tally to 98,84,100 on Monday, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said.

Since July this is the second time that India has been in the 27,000-cases zone. It was on July 10 that 27,114 fresh cases were reported. Cases have only dipped a handful number of times since its steady surge starting June-end and touching crescendo in September with nearly 98,000 cases a day.

On December 7, there were 26,567; on November 16 it was 29,163 and on July 2, it was 22,753 before its steep rise to 97,894 on September 16.

The total deaths have touched 1,43,355.

Till now, 93,88,159 people have recovered, and over 30,695 in the last 24 hours. Currently, there are 3,52,586 active cases. The recovery rate stands at 94.98 percent, and the fatality rate is 1.45 percent.

A total of 15,45,66,990 samples have been tested for Covid-19 till now. Of these, 8,55,157 samples were tested on Sunday, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said.

Maharashtra continues to be the worst-hit state with 18,80,416 cases to date. Over 70 percent of the daily new cases were reported by 10 states and UT -- Kerala, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Delhi, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Haryana.

As many as eight Covid-19 vaccine candidates are under different stages of clinical trials which could be ready for authorization in near future, including three indigenous vaccines.

It includes Astrazeneca and Oxford university developed and Serum Institute of India manufactured Covishield; Covaxin by Bharat Biotech Limited; ZyCoV-D by Zydus Cadila; Russian vaccine candidate Sputnik-V; NVX-CoV2373 by SII; HGCO19 by Geneva and two unlabeled vaccines -- Recombinant Protein antigen-based vaccine by Biological E Limited and Inactivated rabies vector platform by Bharat Biotech.