New Delhi, Jul 5 (IANS): India on Monday recorded 723 deaths and added 39,796 new Covid-19 cases in the past 24 hours, said the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry.

India recorded 780 deaths on April 8 and 738 deaths on July 3.

On Friday, the country crossed four lakh deaths due to Covid. With six lakh deaths, the US is at the top of the list followed by Brazil with 5.2 lakh Covid fatalities.

The first death due to Covid-19 in the country was reported last year in March. On May 23 this year, India witnessed the highest fatalities with 4,454 deaths in 24 hours.

Monday is the 17th consecutive day in the last two months when the death toll has been below the 2,000-mark.

The total caseload rose to 3,05,85,229 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 27th 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 5 lakh. The country has 4,82,071 active cases presently and has witnessed a total of 4,02,728 deaths so far.

According to the Union Health Ministry, a total of 42,352 people have been discharged in the last 24 hours, taking the total discharge to 2,97,00,430 till date.

The Health Ministry said that a total of 35,28,92,046 people have been vaccinated so far in the country, including 14,81,583 who were administered vaccines in the last 24 hours.

According to the Indian Council of Medical Research, 41,97,77,457 samples have been tested up to July 4 for Covid-19. Of these 15,22,504 samples were tested on Sunday.