New Delhi, Jul 16 (IANS): India reported 38,949 new Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours when 40,026 people were also discharged from hospital, taking the recoveries from the pandemic go past number of new infections.

On Friday according to the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry, 542 deaths were reported in 24 hours -- one of the least since April due to the virus.

A total of 3,01,83,876 people have been discharged from hospitals and health centres till date as the virus infected less than one lakh people for the last 38 days.

The active cases have now come down below 5 lakh. The country has 4,30,422 active cases presently and has witnessed a total of 4,12,531 deaths so far.

The Ministry said that a total of 39,53,43,767 people have been vaccinated so far in the country, including 38,78,078 who were administered vaccines in the last 24 hours.

According to the Indian Council of Medical Research, 44,00,23,239 samples have been tested up to July 15 for Covid-19. Of these 19,55,910 samples were tested on Thursday.