India's COVID-19 tally surged to 4,35,47,809 with the addition of 16,159 new cases, while the death toll mounted to 5,25,270 with 28 more deaths in 24 hours, according to the latest update by the Union Health Ministry.

A total of 4,54,465 COVID-19 tests were conducted in the last 24 hours. India has so far conducted over 86.49 crore cumulative tests, the Health Ministry stated.

India’s recovery rate stands at 98.53 per cent with the recovery of 15,394 patients in a span of 24 hours. and the cumulative tally of recovered patients stood at 4,29,07,327.

Consequently, the country's active caseload stood at 1,15,212, constituting 0.26 per cent, it added.

Kerala with 29,155 has the highest number of active cases, followed by Maharashtra with 20,820 and Tamil Nadu with 16,765 cases. Kerala reported as many as 2,603 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours while Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu reported 3,098 and 2,662 cases, respectively.

Meanwhile, India’s COVID-19 vaccination coverage has exceeded 198.20 crore as per provisional reports till 7 am Wednesday.