New Delhi, Aug 22 : The Union Health Ministry on Tuesday said the country registered 23 new Covid cases in the last 24 hours, which increased the total tally to 4,49,96,676. In its latest update, the Ministry said that 28 people recuperated from the disease also in the same period, taking the number of total recoveries to 4,44,63,280. While the recovery rate stands at 98.91 per cent, the active caseload stood at 1,470. According to the Ministry, the country has registered a total of 5,31,926 Covid deaths since the outbreak of the pandemic in early 2020. Meanwhile, over 220.67 crore doses of Covid-19 vaccine have been administered so far. In view of the recent reports of detection of certain newer variants of SARS-CoV-2 virus reported globally, P.K. Mishra, Principal Secretary to Prime Ministe, chaired a high-level meeting on Monday to review the global and national Covid-19 situation. /IANS