New Delhi, Dec 5 (IANS): With 36,652 new Covid-19 infections and 512 deaths in the past 24 hours, India's overall tally stood at 96,08,211, while the toll touched 1,39,700, the Union Health Ministry said on Saturday.

Currently, there are 4,09,689 active cases, whereas 90,58,822 patients have been discharged so far.

The recovery rate stands at 94.28 percent, while the fatality rate at 1.45 percent.

"Demonstrating a landmark achievement, India's active cases have fallen below 4.2 lakh mark. The recovered cases have leaped past the 90 lakh mark," the ministry stated.

Maharashtra continued to be the worst-hit state with 1,842,587 cases to date.

Over 78 percent of the daily new cases are contributed by ten States and UT i.e. Maharashtra, Delhi, West Bengal, Haryana, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh.

Experts believe that a Covid-19 vaccine will be ready in the next few weeks, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Friday during an all-party meeting, adding that the vaccination programme would begin as soon as scientists give a nod.

The overall number of global coronavirus cases has topped 65.7 million, while the deaths have surged to more than 1.51 million, according to the Johns Hopkins University.

In its latest update on Saturday, the University's Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) revealed that the current global caseload and death toll stood at 65,771,488 and 1,516,035, respectively.

The US is the worst-hit country with the world's highest number of cases and deaths at 14,343,430 and 278,605, respectively, according to the CSSE. India comes in second place in terms of cases.