New Delhi, Oct 17 (IANS): India recorded 14,146 new cases of Covid-19 during the past 24 hours pushing the country's infection caseload to 3,40,67,719, even as the number of vaccinated people went past 97 crores, the Union Health Ministry said in an update on Sunday.

With 144 more fatalities, the death toll reached 4,52,124.

The active cases declined by 5,786 to stand at 1,95,846, the lowest in 220 days, which is now 0.57 per cent of the total caseload.

In the past 24 hours, 19,788 people recovered from the highly contagious virus, taking the total recovery count to 3,34,19,749, accounting for 98.10 per cent of the case tally. The death rate stood at 1.33 per cent.

The daily positivity rate was recorded at 1.29 per cent which has been below three per cent for the last 48 days. The weekly positivity rate, too, at 1.42 per cent was less than 3 per cent for the last 114 days.

Meanwhile, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said that till now 58.25 crore (59,09,35,381) samples have been tested for the coronavirus. Of this, 11,00,123 were tested on Saturday.

The country has so far administered 97,65,89,540 doses of the Covid-19 vaccine with 41,20,772 jabs being given in the past day.

The Health Ministry said that more than 101.7 crore (1,01,78,96,755) vaccine doses have been provided to the States and union territories. It further said more than 10.42 crore (10,42,45,455) balance and unutilized Covid Vaccine doses are still available with the States/UTs to be administered.