India has reported 15,981 new Covid-19 cases and 166 deaths in 24 hours, a Union health ministry bulletin stated on Saturday. The number of daily new cases has remained less than 20,000 cases for last eight days.
The case tally has been pushed to 3,40,53,573 and the death toll climbed to 4,51,980.

As many as 17,861 recoveries have pushed the total number of people who have recuperated from the disease so far to 3,33,99,961, the government said.
The recovery rate in the country currently stands at 98.08%, the highest since March 2020.

India currently has 2,01,632 active cases – the lowest in 218 days – with a dip of 2,046 such cases. Active cases at present account for less than 1% of the total cases (0.59%) – the lowest since March 2020.

India has so far administered 97,23,77,045 doses of vaccine under the nationwide vaccination drive with 8,36,118 doses having been administered in the last 24 hours, the ministry’s Covid bulletin also showed.
A total of 58,98,35,258 samples have been tested for Covid detection up to October 15, the Indian Council of Medical Research said on Saturday. As many as 9,23,003 samples were tested on Friday, it said.

The weekly positivity rate, at 1.44%, has been recorded below 3% for the last 113 days. At 1.73%, the daily positivity rate has been less than 3% for last 47 days, government data also showed.