New Delhi, Dec 15 (IANS): India is quickly moving towards the psychological one-crore-cases milestone, and continues to be the second worst-hit after the US.

As the mercury dropped below 10 degrees Celsius in many parts of northern India, only 22,065 new coronavirus cases were recorded in the past 24 hours taking the overall tally to 99,06,165 on Tuesday as 354 deaths were also reported, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said.

The last time India recorded around 20,000 cases was on July 2 when there were 20,903 fresh cases reported in 24 hours; on July 3 it was 22,771; July 6 it was 22,251. On Monday, India recorded 27,071 fresh cases.

Cases have only dipped a handful number of times since its steady surge starting June-end and touching the crescendo in September when it was nearly 98,000 cases a day.

The total deaths have touched 1,43,709.

Till now, 94,22,636 people have recovered, and over 34,477 in the last 24 hours. Currently, there are 3,39,820 active cases. The recovery rate stands at 94.98 percent, and the fatality rate is 1.45 percent.

A total of 15,55,60,655 samples have been tested for Covid-19 till now. Of these, 9,93,665 samples were tested on Monday, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said.

Maharashtra continues to be the worst-hit state. Over 70 per cent of the daily new cases were reported by 10 states and UT -- Maharashtra (2,949), Kerala (2,707), West Bengal (1,834), Chhattisgarh (1,615), Delhi (1,376), Rajasthan (1,250), Uttar Pradesh (1,172), Tamil Nadu (1,141) Gujarat, and Madhya Pradesh.