New Delhi, Oct 16 : India reported a total of 15,981 fresh Covid cases and 166 deaths in the last 24 hours, the Union Health Ministry said in its latest update on Saturday. The new fatalities increased the overall death toll to 4,51,980, the Ministry said, adding that the single-day cases have remained less than 20,000 for the last eight days. The recovery of 17,861 patients in the last 24 hours has increased the cumulative tally of recovered patients to 3,33,99,961. Consequently, India's recovery rate has also climbed to 98.08 per cent, currently at its highest peak since March 2020. The active caseload is presently 2,01,632, which is the lowest in 218 days. Active cases presently constitute 0.59 per cent of the country's total positive cases, lowest since March 2020. While testing capacity has been enhanced across the country, the weekly positive at 1.44 per cent remains less than 3 per cent for the last 113 days now. The daily positivity rate stands at 1.44 per cent. The daily positivity rate has remained below 3 per cent for last 47 days and below 5 per cent for 130 consecutive days now. With the administration of 8,36,118 vaccine doses in the last 24 hours, India's Covid inoculation coverage has exceeded 97.23 crore as per provisional reports till 7 a.m. on Saturday. This has been achieved through 96,05,482 sessions. More than 101 crore vaccine doses have been provided to states/UTs so far via the Centre and through direct state procurement category. More than 11.12 crore balance and unutilised oses are still available. /IANS