New Delhi, Jun 15 (IANS): India has witnessed a decline in daily Covid cases by up to 85 per cent since the highest daily tally was registered on May 7, the Union Health Ministry said on Tuesday.

"We are witnessing a continued reduction in daily cases after 75 days which indicates an overall decline in infection rate," Joint Secretary, Health, Lav Agarwal, said.

In the last 24 hours, India reported 86,490 new cases, while on May 7, daily cases were at 4.14 lakh, but had come down to 2.67 lakh on May 19 and dropped below the 2 lakh mark subsequently.

"Observing the decline of Covid cases per day, we have analysed that India has witnessed around 85 per cent reduction in daily cases, which is a big development for all of us but we have to continue work on strict Covid behaviour," Agarwal added.

According to the Health Ministry, daily Covid positivity rate has declined by 33 per cent.

Agarwal also said that the country is seeing a sharp decline in active cases in the last few days, amounting to around 65 per cent. On May 10, active cases were at an average of 37.45 lakh, but now have reduced to less than 10 lakh, which account for 2.9 per cent of total cases.

Cumulative recovery rate has now reached 95.6 per cent, with recoveries outnumbering infections in all states, he said.

As many as 366 districts across the country have reported a marked decline in cases over the past weeks, while there are 20 states and UTs where active Covid cases are less than 5,000.