The government coronavirus task force said that 339 people had died of coronavirus-related causes in the last 24 hours. That pushed the death toll to 121,501.
The B.1.617 variant of the coronavirus was first detected in India last year and has been blamed for much of a devastating Covid-19 wave that has battered South Asian nations in recent weeks.
The health ministry also reported 98 new coronavirus deaths in hospitals on Friday. Later on Friday, it is set to report the death tally for retirement care homes over the past three days as well as data on new cases.