New Delhi, Jul 2 (IANS): India on Friday became the third country, after the US and Brazil, to cross four lakh deaths due to Covid-19 pandemic. There were 853 deaths reported in the past 24 hours.

According to data released by the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry on Friday, there were 46,617 fresh cases during the same period.

With six lakh deaths US is at the top of the list followed by Brazil with 5.2 lakh due to the coronavirus.

The first death due to Covid-19 in the country was reported last year in March. On May23, 2021, the country witnessed highest fatalities with 4,454 deaths in 24 hours.

On June 30, India recorded 817 fatalities due to the coronavirus, lowest since April 10.

Friday is the 14th consecutive day in the last two months when the toll has been below the 2,000-mark.

The total caseload rose to 3,04,58,251 after India crossed the three crore mark on June 25.

India is the second country after the US to record more than three crore cases, adding one crore cases in the last 50 days.

It is also the 24th consecutive day when India reported less than one lakh new coronavirus cases. On June 29, India recorded 37,566 cases, lowest since March 18 while on June 22 India reported 42,640 cases.

The active cases have now come down below 6 lakh. The country has 5,09,637 active cases presently and has witnessed 4,00,312 deaths so far.

According to the Union Health Ministry, a total of 59,384 people have been discharged in the last 24 hours, taking the total discharge to 2,95,48,302 till date.

The Health Ministry said that a total of 34,00,76,232 people have been vaccinated so far in the country, including 42,64,123 who were administered vaccines in the last 24 hours.

According to the Indian Council of Medical Research, 41,42,51,520 samples have been tested up to July 1 for Covid-19. Of these 18,80,026 samples were tested on Thursday.