India's COVID-19 cases soared by over 20,000 in a day for the first time taking the country's total tally to 6,25,544 on Friday, while the death toll climbed to 18,213 with 379 new fatalities, according to the Union health ministry data.

The country recorded 20,903 coronavirus infections in the last 24 hours till Friday 8 am.

The number of recoveries stands at 3,79,891 while one patient has migrated. There are 2,27,439 active cases of coronavirus infections presently in the country.

"Thus, around 60.73 per cent of patients have recovered so far," an official said.

The total number of confirmed cases include foreigners.

Of the 379 deaths reported in the last 24 hours, 125 are from Maharashtra, 61 from Delhi, 57 from Tamil Nadu, 19 each from Gujarat and Karnataka, 17 from Uttar Pradesh, 16 from West Bengal, 11 from Haryana, 10 from Jammu and Kashmir, nine from Rajasthan, eight each from Telangana and Madhya Pradesh, seven from Bihar, five from Andhra Pradesh, three from Punjab, two from Puducherry and one each from Kerala and Uttarakhand.