New Delhi, Dec 14 (IANS): India on Tuesday witnessed a major drop in the number of daily Covid cases as it reported 5,784 new infections in the last 24 hours, the lowest in 571 days, according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

In the same period, there were 252 new fatalities, which pushed the overall death toll to 4,75,888.

Also in the last 24 hours, 7,995 patients recovered, increasing the cumulative tally to 3,41,38,763. Consequently, India's recovery rate stands at 98.37 per cent, the highest since March 2020.

While India's active caseload stood at 88,993, the lowest in 563 days, active cases account for 0.26 per cent of the country's total positive cases, which is also the lowest since March 2020.

Also in the same period, a total of 9,50,482 tests were conducted across the country, taking the total figure to over 65.76 crore.

Meanwhile, the weekly positivity rate at 0.68 per cent has remained less than 1 per cent for the last 30 days now.

The daily positivity rate at 0.58 per cent has also remained below 2 per cent for the last 71 days and less than 3 per cent for 106 days.

With the administration of 66,98,601 vaccine doses in the last 24 hours, India's Covid inoculation coverage has reached 133.88 crore as of Tuesday morning.

This has been achieved through 1,40,27,706 sessions.

More than 17.06 crore alance and unutilised Covid vaccine doses are still available with the states and UTs, according to the Ministry.