With a record spike of 69,874 infections in a day, India's Covid-19 tally increased to 29,75,701, while the recoveries surged to 22,22,577 pushing the recovery rate to 74.69 per cent on Saturday, according to the Union health ministry data.

The death toll climbed to 55,794 with 945 fatalities being reported in a span of 24 hours, the data updated at 8 am showed.

The Covid-19 case fatality rate has declined to 1.87 per cent, it said.

There are 6,97,330 active cases of coronavirus infection in the country which comprises 23.43 per cent of the total caseload, the data stated.

India's Covid-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7.

A cumulative total of 3,44,91,073 samples have been tested up to August 21 with 10,23,836 samples being tested on Friday, the highest done in a day so far, Lokesh Sharma, scientist and media coordinator at ICMR said.

Of the 945 fresh deaths, 339 are from Maharashtra, 101 from Tamil Nadu, 93 from Karnataka, 91 from Andhra Pradesh, 64 from Uttar Pradesh, 55 from West Bengal, 34 from Punjab, 15 from Jammu and Kashmir, 14 each from Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh, 13 from Delhi, 12 each from Kerala, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan and 11 from Jharkhand.

Ten fatalities were reported from Odisha, nine from Goa, seven each from Haryana and Telangana, six each from Assam, Bihar and Puducherry, five from Uttarakhand, two each from Chandigarh, Himachal Pradesh, Manipur while Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Ladakh and Tripura have registered one fatality each.

Of the total 55,794 deaths, Maharashtra has reported the maximum at 21,698 followed by 6,340 in Tamil Nadu, 4,522 in Karnataka, 4,270 in Delhi, 3,092 in Andhra Pradesh, 2,867 in Gujarat, 2,797 in Uttar Pradesh, 2,689 in West Bengal and 1,185 in Madhya Pradesh.

So far, 991 people have died of Covid-19 in Punjab, 933 in Rajasthan, 744 in Telangana, 593 in Jammu and Kashmir, 585 in Haryana, 498 in Bihar, 390 in Odisha, 297 in Jharkhand, 227 in Assam, 203 in Kerala and 192 in Uttarakhand.

Chhattisgarh has registered 180 deaths, Puducherry 143, Goa 135, Tripura 70, Chandigarh 33, Andaman and Nicobar Islands 32, Himachal Pradesh 25, Manipur 20, Ladakh 19, Nagaland eight, Meghalaya six, Arunachal Pradesh five, Sikkim three and Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu two.

The health ministry stressed that more than 70 per cent of the deaths occurred due to comorbidities.

"Our figures are being reconciled with the Indian Council of Medical Research," the ministry said, adding that state-wise distribution of figures is subject to further verification and reconciliation.