New Delhi, Apr 18 (IANS): India has reported 2,61,500 fresh Covid cases in the last 24 hours, the highest single-day spike ever, pushing the country's overall Covid tally to 1,47,88,109, according to the Health Ministry data released on Sunday.

This is the fourth consecutive day that the country has registered over two lakh Covid cases. India recorded 2,34,692 cases on Saturday, 2,00,739 and 2,17,353 cases on Thursday and Friday respectively.

Meanwhile, as many as 1,501 people died of Covid in the last 24 hours, taking the country's death toll to 1,77,150 so far. The daily active cases tally rose to 18,01,316.

A total of 1,38,423 patients recovered in the same time span, taking the number of recoveries to 1,28,09,643 with a recovery rate of 86.62 per cent.

The Health Ministry said that a total of 15,66,394 samples were tested in the last 24 hours.

So far, a total of 26,65,38,416 samples have been tested in the country.

According to the government data, a total of 26,84,956 people were also vaccinated in the same period, taking the total inoculation count to 12,26,22,590.

Underlining the alarming rise in the daily number of active cases and a sharp growth in deaths, Union Health Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan on Saturday said the widening gap between the daily new cases and the daily recoveries reflects that the infection is spreading at a much faster rate than recoveries.