Death toll due to COVID-19 touches 718; number of cases climb to 23,077

The death toll due to COVID-19 rose to 718 and the number of cases to 23,077 in the country on Friday, according to the Union Health Ministry.

The number of active COVID-19 cases is 17,610 as 4,748 people were cured and discharged, and one patient migrated, it said.

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said a total 23,502 samples have been confirmed positive for coronavirus so far.

The Health Ministry said 77 foreign nationals are among the total 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, three from Uttar Pradesh and two each from Delhi, Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, the ministry said.

Of the 718 deaths, Maharashtra tops the tally with 283 fatalities, 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 and Telengana, 20 in Tamil Nadu and 17 in Karantaka.

Punjab has registered 16 deaths, while West Bengal has reported 15 fatalities. The disease has claimed five lives in Jammu and Kashmir, while Kerala, Jharkhand and Haryana have recorded three COVID-19 deaths each.

Bihar has reported two deaths, while Meghalaya, Himachal Pradesh, Odisha and Assam have reported one fatality each, according to the ministry's updated data.

However, a PTI tally of the figures reported by various states 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 officials attribute to procedural delays in assigning the cases to individual states.

According to the ministry's data updated in the morning, the highest 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, Madhya Pradesh at 1,699 and Tamil Nadu at 1,683.

The number of COVID-19 cases has gone up to 1,510 in Uttar Pradesh, 960 in Telangana and 895 in Andhra Pradesh.

The number of cases has risen to 514 in West Bengal, 447 in Kerala, 445 in Karnataka, 427 in Jammu and Kashmir, 277 in Punjab and 272 in Haryana.

Bihar has reported 153 coronavirus cases, while Odisha has 90 cases. Fifty-three people have been infected with the virus in Jharkhand, 47 in Uttarakhand and 40 in Himachal Pradesh.

Chhattisgarh and Assam have registered 36 infections each so far.

Chandigarh has 27 COVID-19 cases, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands 22, while 18 cases have been reported from Ladakh.

Meghalaya has reported 12 cases, and Goa and Puducherry have seven COVID-19 cases each.

Manipur and Tripura have two cases each, while Mizoram and Arunachal 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 verification and reconciliation, it said.