India has reported 16,051 fresh COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, 19.6 percent lower than the previous day while the number of active cases, too, continued to decline swiftly.

The active COVID-19 caseload in the country stands at 2,02, 131—9.8 per cent lower than the previous day. Active cases now make up less than 0.5 per cent of the total confirmed cases.

The new cases take the number of total confirmed coronavirus cases in the country to 4,28,22, 473.

A total of 206 COVID-19 deaths were logged in 24 hours, taking the toll of fatalities due to the infectious disease to 5,12,109. Kerala continued to report backlog deaths as part of its data reconciliation exercise registering 44 backlog deaths.

The state also recorded the most deaths in India in a day –48–followed by Karnataka and Odisha which reported 18 and 17 fatalities, respectively.

The daily test positivity rate in India was 1.93 per cent on February 21 while the rolling average of the weekly positivity rate came down to 2.12 per cent.

The states cumulatively registered 37,901 recoveries in the last 24 hours, taking total recoveries to 4,21,24,284 and the recovery rate to 98.33 per cent.

The health ministry said that a total of 76.01 crore tests have been conducted in the country so far of which 8,31,087 tests were carried out in the last 24 hours.

Overall, 175.46 crore vaccine doses have also been administered so far as part of the nationwide vaccination drive against coronavirus, as per details shared.