According to the Union Health Ministry data on Friday, India recorded below 3 lakh cases daily for the fifth consecutive day with 2.59 lakh new cases recorded in a single day. With 4,209 daily deaths, the national death toll was pushed to 2,91,331.

India's total caseload stands at 2,60,31,991 with 2,59,551 new Covid cases.

The active cases further reduced to 30,27,925 comprising 11.63 per cent of the total infections, while the national Covid-19 recovery rate improved to 87.25 per cent.

The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 2,27,12,735, while the case fatality rate has increased to 1.12 per cent, the data stated.

India's Covid-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 30 lakh on August 23, 40 lakh on September 5 and 50 lakh on September 16. It went past 60 lakh on September 28, 70 lakh on October 11, crossed 80 lakh on October 29, 90 lakh on November 20 and surpassed the one-crore mark on December 19. India crossed the grim milestone of 2 crore on May 4.

According to the ICMR, 32,44,17,870 samples have been tested up to May 20 with 20,61,683 samples being tested on Thursday.