The overall tally mounted to 1,10,16,434, the Health Ministry officials said.

 

India has been recording less than 15,000 new infections daily with the toll not crossing the 200-mark over the last one month.

 

However, the number spiked possibly owing to "mutations and new strains" as has been studied by the laboratories involved in Covid detection across the country.

 

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said that there were 78 more deaths, taking the overall toll to 1,56,463.

 

Last week, officials said that the average daily new infections for the last 15 days were oscillating between 9,000 to 12,000 while the deaths were between 78 to 120.

 

On Monday, 14,199 cases were reported; on February 21, 14,264 cases; on February 20, 13,993.

 

On February 9, India had reported 9,110 new cases, the lowest this year so far. Last year, the lowest 9,633 cases were recorded on June 3.

 

As per the Ministry's data, there are 1,47,306 active cases at present after 13,255 patients were discharged in a day. Till now, 1,07,12,665 persons have been discharged so far. The recovery rate has remained to 97.24 per cent, while the fatality rate is 1.42 per cent.

 

At least 86.3 per cent of the new cases are from five states -- Maharashtra, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Punjab. Five states account for 78.31 per cent of the new deaths including Maharashtra, Kerala, Punjab, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh.

 

The Ministry also informed that 6,78,685 samples were tested on Monday. The cumulative tests done by Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) so far stands at 21,22,30,431

 

More than 1,17,45,550 doses of corona vaccine have been administered in the country since the drive began on January 16 after approval for 'Covishield' and 'Covaxin'.

 

As per the Union Health Ministry, India has become the fastest nation in terms of the vaccine doses administered, even though many countries had launched their vaccination campaigns much earlier.