New Delhi, Sep 17 : In the last 24 hours, India reported 34,403 new Covid-19 cases and 320 fatalities, according to the Union Health Ministry's latest report on Friday. With the new fatalities, the country's cumulative death toll increased to 4,44,248. The fatality rate has remained at 1.33 per cent for the last few days. This is the second consecutive day that the number of single-day cases were above the 30,000 mark. On Thursday, the figure was 30,570 cases on Thursday. With a reduction of 3,867 active cases in a span of 24 hours, the overall number stood at 3,39,056, which is 1.03 per cent of the total Covid infections reported in the country since early 2020. In the same time span, a total of 37,950 Covid-infected patients recovered, pushing the country's total recoveries to 3,25,98,424. The Covid recovery rate in the last 24 hours remained at 97.64 per cent. The weekly positivity rate, which currently stands at 1.97 per cent, has been less than 3 per cent for the last 84 days. A total of 54.77 crore Covid sample tests were conducted in the country, according to the Union Health Ministry. Till date, the country has administered over 77.24 crore (77,24,25,744) doses of Covid vaccines, out of which 63,97,972 jabs were given in the last 24 hours, the data showed. Kerala, which has been reporting the highest daily Covid cases for the last few weeks, has registered 17,681 new infections, while Maharashtra reported 3,783 new cases, according to the Health Ministry's report. On Thursday, the Ministry insisted on extra caution for the upcoming festival season. "Covid safe festivities this year will be a determining factor in our fight against the pandemic," Covid task-force's V.K.Paul said. /IANS