New Delhi: The total number of novel coronavirus cases in India stood at 18,985 on Tuesday, the Ministry of Health and Family welfare said.

In an evening update, the Health Ministry said that out of these, 15,122 are active cases while 603 people have died.

"At least 3,259 people have been cured so far. our rate of recovery is highest today-17.48 per cent," Joint Secretary, Health, Lav Agarwal said at the daily media briefing.

Maharashtra continued to be the worst hit with 46,69 total cases, followed by Delhi with 2,081 cases. The national capital has seen 47 fatalities.

Meanwhile, Rajasthan has witnessed 1,576 cases and 25 deaths while Tamil Nadu has seen 1,520 cases and 17 deaths so far.

However, four districts - Mahe (Puducherry), Kodagu (Karnataka), Pauri Garhwal (Uttrakhand) and Pratapgarh (Rajasthan) have not reported any fresh cases during the last 28 days. "There are now 61 additional districts from 23 States/UT that have not reported any fresh cases during the last 14 days. Four new districts have been included in the list: Latur, Osmanabad, Hingoli and Washim from Maharashtra," Agarwal said.

The Health Ministry said the country's recovery rate of coronavirus patients is 17.48 percent and 3,252 patients have been cured so far.

Meanwhile, as many as 1.24 crore (12.4 million) coronavirus warriors and volunteers have been engaged in containment zones and in the field in various preventive measures, the ministry said.

Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary, Health, said: "Till now, there are 18,601 positive cases in the country. So far, 3,252 people have been cured, and in the previous day, 705 people have recovered. This takes our recovery percentage to 17.48 per cent."

According to the health ministry, 590 people have succumbed to the infection, while the total active cases in the country are 14,759.

Observing the recovery trend shows that on April 15, 183 recovered, 260 patients recovered on April 16, 243 on April 17, 239 recovered on April 18, 316 patients recovered on April 19 and on April 20, 705 patients recovered, which is a single-day record.

According to the chairman of the empowered group, details of corona warriors in 20 categories and 49 sub-categories, for Covid-19 management, is available to states and Union Territories on a designated portal. An Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) official added that 4,49,810 tests for COVID-19 conducted so far in India, and 35,852 samples were tested on Monday.