As many as 68,900 new Covid-19 cases were added while 62,282 people recovered and 983 died during the last 24 hours, taking the total active cases in the country to 6,92,028, according to data released by the Health Ministry on Friday.

So far, India reported a total of 23,05,823 confirmed cases, of which, 21,58,946 people recovered. The death toll from Covid-19 in the country till now is 54,849.

Maharashtra with a total of 1,62,806 active cases, Andhra Pradesh with 87,177 and Karnataka with 82,165 have the maximum number of active infections in the country. Following them are Tamil Nadu (53,283) and Uttar Pradesh (48,511). These five States accounted for nearly 57 per cent of the total active cases in India.

According to the Indian Council of Medical Research, the total number of samples tested so far was around 3.35 crore, of which, nearly 9 lakh was in the last 24 hours.