Active COVID-19 cases in country increase to 1,48,922

India logged 12,729 new coronavirus infections taking the country's total tally of COVID-19 cases to 3,43,33,754, while the active cases increased to 1,48,922, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Friday

The death toll climbed to 4,59,873 with 221 fresh fatalities, according to the data updated at 8 am.

The daily rise in new coronavirus infections has been below 20,000 for 28 straight days and less than 50,000 daily new cases have been reported for 131 consecutive days now.

The active cases comprise 0.43 per cent of the total infections, the lowest since March 2020, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate was recorded at 98.23 per cent, the highest since March 2020, the ministry said.

A rise of 343 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours.

India's COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 2020, 30 lakh on August 23, 40 lakh on September 5 and 50 lakh on September 16. It went past 60 lakh on September 28, 70 lakh on October 11, crossed 80 lakh on October 29, 90 lakh on November 20 and surpassed the one-crore mark on December 19.

India crossed the grim milestone of two crore on May 4 and three crore on June 23.