NEW DELHI, March 28 (Xinhua) - India's COVID-19 tally reached 11,971,624 on Sunday as 62,714 new cases were reported from across the country, according to the latest figures released by the federal health ministry.

Besides, 312 deaths since Saturday morning took the death toll to 161,552. The number of new cases and deaths recorded in the past 24 hours is the highest this year so far.

There are still 486,310 active cases in the country, while 11,323,762 people have been discharged so far from hospitals after medical treatment.

There was an increase of 33,663 active cases during the previous 24 hours, out of which the maximum cases were reported from the southwestern state of Maharashtra.

The number of daily active cases has been on the rise over the past several days, even as another wave of COVID-19 looms large in India.

In January the number of daily cases in the country had come down to below-10,000, as 9,102 new cases were reported between Jan. 25-26, the lowest in over 200 days.

India kicked off a nationwide vaccination drive in January, and so far over 60 million people have been vaccinated across the country.

Meanwhile, the federal government has ramped up testing facilities across the country, as nearly 241 million tests have been conducted so far.

As many as 240,950,842 tests were conducted till Saturday, out of which 1,181,289 tests were conducted on Saturday alone, said the latest data issued by the Indian Council of Medical Research on Sunday.

The national capital Delhi, one of the most affected places in the country, witnessed as many as 1,558 new cases and 10 deaths through Saturday.

So far as many as 10,997 people have died in the national capital due to COVID-19, confirmed Delhi's health department.