India now stands sixth among nations with the highest number of deaths from the virus after over 30000 fatalities have been reported in the country.
With 740 new fatalities reported in a span of 24 hours, the COVID-19 death toll in the country also increased to 30,601 on Friday.
The other five countries with the highest number of COVID-19 fatalities include Italy, Mexico, the UK, Brazil and the US.
Of the 740 deaths reported in the last 24 hours, 298 are from Maharashtra, 97 from Karnataka, 88 are from Tamil Nadu, 61 from Andhra Pradesh, 34 from West Bengal, 28 from Gujarat, 26 each from Uttar Pradesh and Delhi, 11 from Rajasthan,10 from Madhya Pradesh and nine each from Jammu and Kashmir and Telangana.
Punjab has reported eight fatalities followed by Assam, Odisha and Haryana with six deaths each, Kerala five, Uttarakhand, Jharkhand and Puducherry three each, while Chhattisgarh, Tripura and Goa have registered a fatality each
India recorded its single-day highest spike of 43910 COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, taking the total tally to 1287945 on Friday.
Maharashtra continues to be the worst affected country with 140395 coronavirus cases followed by Tamil Nadu and Karnataka with 52939 and 49937 active cases respectively.
The total active cases in the country are now 440135 and a total of 817208 people have recovered so far.
According to the Union Health Ministry, there has been appreciable growth in the recovery rate and a higher number of patients getting cured and discharged has contributed to an increasing gap between recovered and total active cases.