With a single-day rise of 41,649 new cases, India's COVID-19 tally climbed to 3,16,13,993 on Saturday, while the death toll due to the viral disease shot up to 4,23,810 with 593 more people succumbing to it, the Union health ministry said.

The number of active coronavirus cases in the country registered an increase for the fourth consecutive day, according to the ministry's data updated at 8 am.

The number of active cases has gone up to 408920, accounting for 1.29 per cent of the total number of cases, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate was recorded at 97.37 per cent, the data showed.

An increase of 3,765 cases was recorded in the active COVID-19 tally in a span of 24 hours.

Also, 17,76,315 tests to detect the infection were carried out on Friday, taking the total number of such tests conducted so far in the country to 46,64,27,038, while the daily positivity rate was recorded at 2.34 per cent. The weekly positivity rate was recorded at 2.42 per cent, according to the ministry.

The number of people who have recovered from the disease has gone up to 30781263, while the case fatality rate stands at 1.34 per cent, the data showed.

The cumulative number of Covid vaccine doses administered in the country so far has reached 46.15 crore.

India's COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7 last year, 30-lakh mark on August 23, 40-lakh mark on September 5 and 50-lakh mark on September 16.

It went past 60 lakh on September 28 last year, 70 lakh on October 11, 80 lakh on October 29, 90 lakh on November 20 and the one-crore mark on December 19.

The country crossed the grim milestone of two crore COVID-19 cases on May 4 this year and the three-crore mark on June 23.

The 593 fresh fatalities include 231 from Maharashtra and 116 from Kerala.

A total of 423810 Covid deaths have been reported in the country so far, including 132566 from Maharashtra, 36525 from Karnataka, 34050 from Tamil Nadu, 25052 from Delhi, 22756 from Uttar Pradesh, 18128 from West Bengal and 16292 from Punjab.

The 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 (ICMR)," the ministry said on its website, adding that a state-wise distribution of the figures is subject to further verification and reconciliation.