New Delhi, January 9: Over 18,000 new cases were recorded in India in the last 24 hours, as per the numbers released by the government on Saturday. The death count went up by 228 in the corresponding period. The number of discharges exceeded the number of new infections, thereby, marking a further reduction in the country's total active caseload.

As per the update released by the Union Health Ministry, India recorded 18,222 new cases, 19,253 discharges and 228 fatalities in the preceding 24 hours. The tally of active infections stood at 2.24 lakh, whereas, the total death count surged to 1,50,798. White House COVID-19 Task Force Warns of Possible 'USA Variant'.

Update by ANI

The country has so far reported over 1.04 crore infected patients, out of which  1,00,56,651 have successfully recovered. The case count per million section of the population remains one of the lowest in the world.

According to experts, India has survived the brunt of "second wave" of the pandemic so far. A concern continues to loom due to the new "UK strain" of coronavirus. The country has, till now, recorded 82 cases linked to the mutated virus.

The per-day case count has been decelerating over the past couple of months, with analysts claiming that the country has passed through the health crisis' peak. While curbs have been relaxed to a greater extent, the adherence to COVID-19 safety norms continue to remain mandatory.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jan 09, 2021 10:30 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).