New Delhi, Jan 1 (IANS): With 20,036 new coronavirus infections and 256 deaths in the past 24 hours, India's overall tally climbed up to 1,02,86,709 and the death toll 1,48,994 on Friday, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said.

Till now, 98,83,461 patients have recovered. Currently, there are 2,54,254 active cases. The recovery rate stands at 96.08 per cent and the fatality rate 1.45 per cent.

A total of 17,31,11,694 samples have been tested for Covid-19 till now. Of these, 10,62,420 samples were tested on Thursday, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said.

Maharashtra continues to be the worst-hit state. Over 70 per cent of the daily new cases are getting reported from Kerala, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, and Rajasthan.

The Drug Controller General of India ((DCGI) is currently analysing data submitted by the Serum Institute of India, which is manufacturing Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine and Bharat Biotech, which is making indigenous vaccine in collaboration with ICMR. The expert panel will convene a meeting on this on Friday.

The central government plans to vaccinate nearly 30 crore persons in the first phase. It will be offered to one crore healthcare workers, along with 2 crore frontline and essential workers and 27 crore elderly, mostly above the age of 50 with comorbidities.