India reports 605 new Covid cases, four deaths

NEW DELHI: India has logged 605 new Covid-19 cases and four deaths in the past 24 hours, the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said on Wednesday.

The four new fatalities were reported from Kerala and Karanataka, two each, according to the ministry data.

On Tuesday, six deaths were reported in total -- from Karnataka, Chhattisgarh and Assam.

Meanwhile, the total number of active cases further fell to 3,643 from Monday's 3,919.

As of now, the total number of coronavirus cases in India, since the initial outbreak in January 2020, has reached 4,50,19, 819, while the overall death toll has risen to 5,33,406.

The new JN.1 sub-variant is a descendent of the Omicron subvariant known as BA.2.86 or Pirola, with Kerala being the first state to report a case.

In a concerning development, the JN.1 subvariant of the Omicron strain has swiftly become the dominant variant in the state of Maharashtra.

Recent genetic studies on coronavirus samples from January reveal that the JN.1 subvariant accounts for nearly all cases in the state.

Out of the 21 samples from the city that underwent genetic sequencing, all were found positive for the JN.1 subvariant. This discovery has raised the count of JN.1 cases in Maharashtra to over 200.

A total of 682 cases of the JN.1 have been reported from 12 states across the country till January 6, according to sources.

Kerala and Karnataka witnessed JN.1 variant cases, while Delhi, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, Telangana, Odisha and Haryana were also affected, as per the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG).

INSACOG's data revealed that 239 Covid cases in December 2023, and 24 in November 2023, were identified with the presence of the JN.1 variant.

The overall recovery from Covid has reached over 4.4 crore individuals, reflecting a national recovery rate of 98.81 per cent.

The country has administered a total of 220.67 crore doses of Covid vaccines, as per the available data.