As many as 131,968 new COVID-19 cases were registered in the past 24 hours in India, according to official data released by the health ministry on Friday.

The latest single-day spike, the highest so far, takes the total tally to 13,060,542.

This is the fourth time within this week and the third consecutive day that more than 100,000 new COVID-19 cases were reported in India. Earlier, 103,558 new cases were reported on Monday, while 115,736 new cases were reported on Wednesday, and 126,789 new cases on Thursday.

As many as 780 have died due to the pandemic since Thursday morning, taking the total death toll to 167,642, showed the ministry's data.