The Covid-19 recovery rate has risen to 70.77 per cent on Thursday with the total number of patients recuperating from the disease reaching nearly 1.7 million, while the case fatality rate has further declined to 1.96 per cent, the Union Health Ministry said.

It said "record-high" recoveries have led to a decline in the "actual caseload" of the country, which is the number of active cases, and currently is only 27.27 per cent of the total cases.

The number of recoveries from Covid-19 exceed active cases by more than 1 million.

The country recorded the highest 56,383 recoveries in 24 hours on Thursday, taking the total number of recovered patients to 16,95,982. There are 6,53,622 active cases of coronavirus infection in the country, according to the health ministry data updated at 8 am.

"With the increasing number of recoveries, the recovery rate has risen to 70.77 per cent, while the mortality among Covid-19 patients has further regressed to 1.96 per cent, and is steadily declining," the ministry said.

According to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), a cumulative 2,68,45,688 samples have been tested up to August 12 with 8,30,391 samples being tested on Wednesday, the highest in a day so far.

The focussed and collaborative efforts of the Centre, state and Union Territories along with the support of hundreds of thousands of frontline workers have ensured the successful implementation of testing aggressively, tracking comprehensively and treating efficiently through an array of measures including supervised home isolation, and effective clinical management of severe and critical patients, the ministry said.

With a record single-day increase of 66,999 cases, India's Covid-19 tally rose to 23,96,637 on Thursday, while the death toll climbed to 47,033 with 942 people succumbing to the disease in 24 hours, the health ministry data showed.