India's novel coronavirus tally crossed the 22-lakh mark on Monday with 62,064 new cases, while the death toll climbed to 44,386 with 1,007 more fatalities, the Health Ministry said.

The recoveries surged to 15,35,743 with a record 54,859 more people recuperating in the past 24 hours, taking the recovery rate to 69.33 per cent. The case fatality rate has dropped to about 2 per cent, the ministry said.

There are 6,34,945 active cases of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19). The total coronavirus cases now stand at 22,15,074, including 44,386 deaths, according to the ministry data.

This is the fourth consecutive day that the COVID-19 cases have increased by more than 60,000.

As many as 4,77,023 samples were tested on Sunday, taking the total to 2,45,83,558, according to the Indian Council of Medical Research.

Maharashtra remained the worst-hit state with a total of 5,03,084 cases and 17,367 deaths, followed by Tamil Nadu with 2,90,906 cases and 4,808 deaths. The southern state is followed by Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Delhi, and Uttar Pradesh.

Globally, , the overall number of coronavirus cases has topped 19.7 million, while the deaths have increased to over 729,000, according to the Johns Hopkins University.

As of Monday morning, the total number of cases stood at 19,778,566 and the fatalities rose to 729,692, the University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) revealed in its latest update.

The US accounted for the world’s highest number of infections and fatalities at 5,044,435 and 162,919 respectively, according to the CSSE. Brazil came in the second place with 3,035,422 infections and 101,049 deaths.