India's daily COVID-19 cases fall below 100,000

NEW DELHI

India recorded less than 100,000 new coronavirus cases Tuesday, the lowest figure in more than two months, according to the Health Ministry.

"India reports less than 1 lakh [100,000] daily new cases after 63 days," a statement issued by the ministry said, adding 86,498 new cases were reported in the last 24 hours.

The country’s total number of infections has reached 28.9 million after 86,498 cases were registered in the last 24 hours.

The ministry said the country's daily COVID-19 deaths dropped to 2,123 and the death toll stood at 351,309.

While India saw an exponential increase in cases last month, with the daily number even surpassing more than 400,000, cases have started to decline.

Authorities in many regions have started a phased easing of restrictions.

With the country's vaccination program underway, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced Monday that the government will now also provide COVID-19 vaccines free of cost to states for the inoculation of people aged 18-44 from June 21.

Over 230 million vaccine doses have been administered nationwide so far, according to official statistics.