NEW DELHI: India’s COVID-19 tally reached 26,948,874 with 196,427 new cases registered in the past 24 hours, confirmed the federal health ministry on Tuesday. This is the first time in one and a half months when the single-day spike has been below 200,000-mark. The death toll reached 307,231 as 3,511 deaths were registered since Monday morning, falling below 4,000 for the first time in the past few days.The decline in both the number of new cases and deaths per day is being attributed to lock-downs, partial or complete, imposed in most of the states. There are still 2,586,782 active cases in the country, with a decrease of 133,934 cases in the past 24 hours. The number of daily active cases has been on the decline over the past few days after a continuous surge since mid-April. A total of 24,054,861 people has been cured and discharged from hospitals so far across the country. Principal Scientific Advisor to India’s federal government K. Vijay Raghavan recently said a third COVID-19 wave was “inevitable” in the country. India’s nationwide vaccination drive was kicked off on Jan. 16, and over 198 million vaccination doses (198,538,999) have been administered to the people across the country. A total of 2,430,236 vaccine doses were given on Monday alone. Presently the third phase of COVID-19 vaccination is going on, covering all people aged 18 years and above. Though, an acute shortage of vaccines is being felt across the country.Meanwhile, the federal government has ramped up COVID-19 testing facilities across the country, even as over 332 million tests have been conducted so far. As many as 332,594,176 tests were conducted till Monday, out of which 2,058,112 tests were conducted on Monday alone, said the latest data issued by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) on Tuesday. Three types of vaccines are being administered in India, including the Covishield, the Covaxin, and the Russia-made Sputnik-V.