New Delhi, Jan 10 (IANS): India on Sunday reported 18,444 new cases of Covid-19 while 201 people succumbed to to the deadly virus in the last 24 hours.

According to the data released by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, a total of 1,04,50,284 people have been affected with the virus so far. While the active cases stand at 2,23,335, a total of 1,00,75,950 have recovered and have been discharged after battling Covid-19.

In a fresh statement, the Health Ministry has said, "The focused efforts of Centre and State/UT governments on effective clinical management of the hospitalised cases have ensured sustained decline in India's Fatality Rate which is 1.44 per cent today. With effective containment strategy, aggressive testing and standardised clinical management protocols based on holistic Standard of Care Protocol across government and private hospitals, the number of new deaths has dipped."

Maharashtra remains the worst affected state with total cases mounting to 19,15,529 while a total of 50,027 people have died so far of which 57 succumbed to the virus in the last 24 hours.

While the only good news is that in the last 24 hours, there has been no addition in the number of people infected with the new strain of Covid which originated in the UK. The total number of people infected with the new strain stands at 90.

Meanwhile, 18,10,96,622 samples have been tested so far, of which, 8,43,307 samples were tested on Saturday.