India reported 12,729 new cases of coronavirus disease (Covid-19) and 221 related fatalities, as the cumulative caseload reached 34,333,754 and the death toll climbed to 459,873, according to the Union ministry of health and family welfare on Friday.

Meanwhile, the active caseload stood at 148,922, an increase of 343 cases from the 148,579 reported on the previous day.

On Thursday, the health ministry said the active caseload was the lowest in 253 days. “Active cases account for less than 1% of total cases, currently at 0.43%; Lowest since March 2020,” the ministry said in a statement.

Further, the daily recoveries stayed below the new infections on the day with 12,165 people getting discharged from hospitals in the last 24 hours. With this, the total recoveries reached 33,724,959 and the recovery rate stood at 98.23%, the data also showed.

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As many as 670,847 samples were tested for the disease on November 4 and so far 613,017,614 samples have been tested in the country, the Indian Council of Medical Research said, earlier on the day.

On the vaccination front, 1,077,046,116 doses have been administered to eligible beneficiaries in the country, the ministry’s Covid-19 dashboard showed at 8am. It was an increase of 565,276 doses since Thursday.

Earlier on Thursday, the ministry said that more than 152 million Covid-19 vaccine doses remained unutilised with the states and Union territories in the ongoing inoculation drive. “More than 116crore(1,16,21,77,965) vaccine doses have been provided to States/UTs so far through Govt of India (free of cost channel) and through direct state procurement category. More than 15.2Cr (15,20,94,556)balance and unutilized COVID Vaccine doses are still available with the States/UTs to be administered,” the ministry said.

On November 3, the Centre launched the ‘Har Ghar Dastak’ door-to-door vaccination campaign against the disease with special focus on second dose inoculations. The program was launched after a meeting by PM Modi with district magistrates of 40 districts, with low vaccination coverage, and the respective state chief ministers.