New Delhi, May 21 (IANS): The daily positivity rate has declined to 12.59 percent as the daily recoveries outnumbered the daily new cases for the 8th consecutive day and new cases were below three lakhs for the fifth successive day, said the government.

But 24 hours after recording less than 4,000 deaths, India on Friday once gain breached the grim milestone as the daily fatalities due to Covid-19 rose to 4,209, according to the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry, even as new cases dropped to their lowest at 2,59,551 in exactly a month.

India registered record deaths due to Covid on Wednesday with 4,529 deaths -- the highest number of fatalities from Covid infection in any country so far. It surpassed 4,468 deaths in the US on January 12, and earlier 4,211 in Brazil on April 6. These three are the countries worst-hit by the pandemic.

Fresh Covid cases came below the three lakh-mark for the first time on May 17 after touching a record high of 4,14,188 on May 7.

India's overall tally of Covid-19 cases now stands at 2,60,31,991 with 30,27,925 active cases and 2,91,331 deaths so far.

According to the Health Ministry, a total of 3,57,295 people have been discharged in the last 24 hours, with 2,27,12,735 recovering from Covid till date.

The Health Ministry said that a total of 19,18,79,503 people have been vaccinated so far in the country, including 14,82,754 who were administered vaccines in the last 24 hours.

According to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), 32,44,17,870 samples have been tested up to May 20 for Covid-19. Of these 20,61,683 samples were tested on Thursday.