90 people infected with UK COVID-19 strain so far: Health Ministry

New Delhi: The number of persons infected by the new United Kingdom strain of SARS-Cov-2 in India has risen to 90, the Union Health Ministry informed on Saturday.

Earlier in the day, India reported 18,222 fresh coronavirus infections in the last 24 hours, taking the country's tally to 1,04,31,639.

According to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), 228 people have died while 19,253 patients recovered from the disease in the same time frame.

With more recoveries reported than fresh cases, the number of active cases dropped to 2,24,190. The overall recoveries reached 1,00,56,651 while the death toll mounted to 1,50,798.

Kerala has the highest number of active cases (64,434), followed by Maharashtra at 53,006.

According to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), a total of 18,02,53,315 samples were tested for Covid-19 up to January 8. Of these, 9,16,951 samples were tested yesterday.