The death toll due to COVID-19 rose to 718 and the number ofcases to 23,077 in the country on Friday, according to the Union HealthMinistry.
The number of active COVID-19 cases is 17,610 as 4,748people were cured and discharged, and one patient migrated, it said.
The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said a total23,502 samples have been confirmed positive for coronavirus so far.
The Health Ministry said 77 foreign nationals are among thetotal 23,077 COVID-19 cases reported in the country.
A total of 32 deaths were reported since Thursday evening,of which 14 fatalities were reported from Maharashtra, nine from Gujarat, threefrom Uttar Pradesh and two each from Delhi, Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, theministry said.
Of the 718 deaths, Maharashtra tops the tally with 283fatalities, followed by Gujarat at 112, Madhya Pradesh at 83, Delhi at 50,Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh at 27 each.
The death toll reached 24 each in Uttar Pradesh andTelengana, 20 in Tamil Nadu and 17 in Karantaka.
Punjab has registered 16 deaths, while West Bengal hasreported 15 fatalities. The disease has claimed five lives in Jammu andKashmir, while Kerala, Jharkhand and Haryana have recorded three COVID-19deaths each.
Bihar has reported two deaths, while Meghalaya, HimachalPradesh, Odisha and Assam have reported one fatality each, according to theministry’s updated data.
However, a PTI tally of the figures reported by variousstates as on Thursday showed 722 deaths in the country.
There has been a lag in the Union Health Ministry figures,compared to the number of deaths announced by different states, which officialsattribute to procedural delays in assigning the cases to individual states.
According to the ministry’s data updated in the morning, thehighest number of confirmed cases in the country are from Maharashtra at 6,430,followed by Gujarat at 2,624, Delhi at 2,376, Rajasthan at 1,964, MadhyaPradesh at 1,699 and Tamil Nadu at 1,683.
The number of COVID-19 cases has gone up to 1,510 in UttarPradesh, 960 in Telangana and 895 in Andhra Pradesh.
The number of cases has risen to 514 in West Bengal, 447 inKerala, 445 in Karnataka, 427 in Jammu and Kashmir, 277 in Punjab and 272 inHaryana.
Bihar has reported 153 coronavirus cases, while Odisha has90 cases. Fifty-three people have been infected with the virus in Jharkhand, 47in Uttarakhand and 40 in Himachal Pradesh.
Chhattisgarh and Assam have registered 36 infections each sofar.
Chandigarh has 27 COVID-19 cases, the Andaman and NicobarIslands 22, while 18 cases have been reported from Ladakh.
Meghalaya has reported 12 cases, and Goa and Puducherry haveseven COVID-19 cases each.
Manipur and Tripura have two cases each, while Mizoram andArunachal Pradesh have reported a case each.
“Our figures are being reconciled with the ICMR,”the ministry said on its website.
States wise distribution is subject to further verificationand reconciliation, it said.