India records 19556 new COVID-19 cases in 24 hours, lowest daily count since July 

It is the lowest daily count of infection recorded since early July.

The country's total number of infection count now stands at 1,00,75,116.

In the past 24 hours, 301 new deaths have been recorded, taking the total death count to 146111.

So far, 9636487 people have been discharged from hospital.

There are 292518 active cases in the country at present.

Meanwhile, Maharashtra on Monday imposed night curfew from 11 pm to 6 am till January 5 and announced a new set of quarantine rules for passengers arriving from Europe and Middle East after a new strain of coronavirus, which is found to be far more infectious than the previous strains, emerged in UK and forced several countries, including India, to temporarily stop flights to and from that country.

The state government made 14 days institutional quarantine compulsory for passengers travelling from Europe and the Middle East and home quarantine for others.

Essential services, like supply of vegetables and milk will remain unaffected during this period. However, during this period assembly of more than five people will not be allowed.

Though the Centre has banned all flights from the UK from the midnight of December 22, nearly 1000 passengers are likely to arrive in various flights.

All such passengers will be administered RT-PCR tests on arrival. Those who test positive will be sent for institutional quarantine while those who test negative will be asked to remain in home quarantine.