New Delhi, Apr 17 (IANS): India has reported 2,34,692 fresh Covid cases in the last 24 hours, the highest single-day spike ever, pushing the country's overall Covid tally to 1,45,26,609, according to the Health Ministry data released on Saturday.

This is the third consecutive day that the country has registered over 2 lakh Covid cases. India recorded 2,00,739 and 2,17,353 cases on Thursday and Friday respectively.

Meanwhile, as many as 1,341 people died of Covid in the last 24 hours, taking the country's death toll to 1,75,649 so far. The daily active cases tally on Friday rose to 16,79,740.

A total of 1,23,354 patients recovered in the same time span, taking the number of recoveries to 1,26,71,220, with a recovery rate of 87.23 percent.

The Health Ministry said that a total of 14,95,397 samples were tested in the last 24 hours.

So far, 26,49,72,022 samples have been tested in the country.

According to the government data, a total of 30,04,544 people were also vaccinated in the same period, taking the total inoculation count to 11,99,37,641.

Delhi and Maharashtra recorded their biggest single-day rise in coronavirus cases since early 2020. The national capital has registered on Friday night 19,486 new cases.

The five most affected states by total cases are Maharashtra (3,703,584), Kerala (1,197,301), Karnataka (1,109,650), Tamil Nadu (962,935), and Andhra Pradesh (942,135).