With a record single-day increase of 66,999 cases, India's COVID-19 tally mounted to 23,96,637 on Thursday, while the number of patients who have recovered from the disease surged to 16,95,982, pushing the recovery rate to 70.77 per cent in the country, according to the Union health ministry.

The death toll due to COVID-19 climbed to 47,033 with 942 people succumbing to the disease in the last 24 hours, health ministry data updated at 8 am showed. The case fatality rate in the country has declined to 1.96 per cent. There are 6,53,622 active COVID-19 cases in the country presently, which accounts for 27.

27 per cent of its total caseload. India crossed the 20-lakh mark in terms of COVID-19 cases on August 7. According to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), a total of 2,68,45,688 samples were tested in the country till August 12, including 8,30,391 tested on Wednesday, the highest number of tests performed in a day.