New coronavirus infections reported in India in a span of 24 hours dropped below 50,000 for the second time this month, while the new fatalities registered during the same period fell under 500 after 108 days, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Monday India's COVID-19 caseload mounted to 79,09,959 with 45,148 new infections being reported in a day.

The death toll climbed to 1,19,014 with 480 new fatalities, the data updated at 8 am showed. A total of 71,37,228  people have recuperated from COVID-19 so far pushing the national recovery rate to 90.23 per cent while the case fatality rate has dropped to 1.50 per cent.

  The active cases of coronavirus infections remained below 7 lakh for four days in a row. There are 6,53,717 active cases of coronavirus infection in the country as on date which comprises 8.26 per cent of the total caseload, the data stated. India's COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 30 lakh on August 23 and 40 lakh on September 5.

It went past  50 lakh on September 16, 60 lakh on September 28 and crossed 70 lakh on October 11. According to the ICMR, a cumulative total of 10,34,62,778 samples have been tested up to October 24 with 9,39,309 samples being tested on Sunday.