New Delhi, Feb 3 (IANS): In the last 24 hours, India registered a 6.8 per cent rise in new Covid-19 cases with 1,72,433 infections, said the Union Health Ministry on Thursday.

In the same period, there were 1,008 additional Covid fatalities, which took the nationwide death toll to 4,98,983.

Meanwhile, the active caseload has reported a marginal decline at 15,33,921 which constitute 3.67 per cent of the country's total positive cases.

The recovery of 2,59,107 patients in the last 24 hours has increased the cumulative tally to 3,97,70,414. Consequently, India's recovery rate stands at 95.41 per cent.

During the same time period, a total of 15,69,449 tests were conducted across the country, taking the total to 73.41 crore.

While, the weekly positivity rate stood at 12.98 per cent, the daily positivity rate climbed to 10.99 per cent.

With more than 55 lakh vaccine doses being administered in the last 24 hours, India's Covid inoculation coverage reached 167.87 crore as of Thursday morning.

More than 11.07 crore balance and unutilised Covid vaccine doses are still available with the states and UTs.