The number of COVID-19 cases in India climbed to nearly 2.4million after 66,999 new cases have been reported on Thursday, the highest single-day spike.

The country recorded 942 fresh fatalities in the last 24 hours, which pushed the death toll due to the disease to 47,033.

The number of active cases in the country are 6,53,622 while 16,95,982 patients (or more than double the number of active cases) have been discharged so far, according to Union health ministry update on Thursday morning.

There were 60,963 cases and 834 deaths between Tuesday and Wednesday morning.

There have been 6,33,650 cases in the 12 days (till Wednesday) and at least 58,000 cases on an average over the past week every day – the highest in the world. India is ranked third in terms of the number of cases. The country had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7.

However, in further relief, the case fatality rate has declined to 1.98 per cent, according to the government. The health ministry added that more than 70 per cent of the deaths occurred due to comorbidities.

"With more patients recovering and being discharged from hospitals and home isolation (in case of mild and moderate cases), the total recoveries have crossed the 16 lakh-mark and recovery rate has reached another high of 70.38 percent," it further added.