India recorded 1761 deaths due to COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, a massive spike in the casualty figure registered in the country during the period of a single day, as per Ministry of Health released data.

The country also recorded 259,170 new COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours.

The total death toll due to the virus in the country now stands at 180,530.

There are 20,31,977 active cases in the country at present.

So far, 1,31,08,582 people have recovered from the disease in the country, IBNS said. 

Meanwhile, in a move to widen the vaccination drive against Covid-19, the Modi government on Monday announced that everyone above 18 years will be eligible for inoculation from May 1. The government announcement comes after Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a series of meetings on Monday.

All adults will be vaccinated in "a liberalised and accelerated Phase 3 strategy of COVID-19 vaccination", the government said in a statement on a day India reported 273,000 cases in a day.

India commenced the vaccination drive against the deadly virus on Jan 1 using two Covid vaccines - Serum Institute of India produced Covishield, which is developed by Oxford-AstraZeneca and Indian pharma company Bharat Biotech's Covaxin.

In the first phase of vaccination, Health Care Workers (HCWs) and Front Line Workers (FLWs) were inoculated. Phase-II was initiated from March 1, focusing on protecting all people above 45 years of age, accounting for more than 80% of Covid mortality in the country.

With phase 3 of inoculation drive to start, vaccine manufacturers have been incentivized to further scale up their production, as well as attract new national and international players.

A third vaccine-Sputnik V-that is manufactured in Russia has been given Emergency Use Authorisation.