In just a month, India has reported as many as 165 cases of Covid-19 sub-variant JN.1 while 797 new cases of Covid 19 recorded in a single day is the highest in 225 days taking the tally of active cases of the infection to 4,091, as per the data available in the last 24 hours.
Kerala reported the highest number of JN.1 variant cases with the majority of patients being home isolated, said official sources. With one case of JN.1 sub variant, Manipur, on Friday too joined the list of States reporting the mutated version of the Covid-19.
At the same time, five new fatalities due to Covid19-- two from Kerala and one each from Maharashtra, Puducherry and Tamil Nadu -- have been reported in a span of 24 hours, according to the ministry's data updated at 8 am. The country had recorded 865 new cases on May 19.
Ahead of the New Year celebrations across the country, both Centre and state governments are keeping fingers crossed, hoping that there is no surge in the new Covid variant JN.1 cases. India had reported the first JN.1 case on November 16 which now stands at 165 cases.
According to reports, Manipur registered a fresh case of Covid-19 after a prolonged period without new infections. The infected individual, who hails from Paomata in Senapati district, had travelled from Delhi to Dimapur by air and subsequently from Dimapur to Senapati by road. The exact virus variant remains undetermined, as samples have been sent for genome sequencing to ascertain more details, said the officials from the State.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has classified JN.1 as a separate "variant of interest" given its rapidly increasing spread but said it poses a "low" global public health risk. As of December 16, the world health agency reported 7,344 cases of Covid-19 JN.1 subvariant from 41 countries.
The number of daily Covid-19 cases had dropped to double-digits till December 5, but the infections have again moved northward up after emergence of the new variant and cold weather conditions.
As per the latest updates, India reported 797 new Covid-19 cases and the active cases tally stand at 4,000 in the last 24 hours.
Meanwhile, the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) of Delhi said that it has issued guidelines for Covid-19 suspected or positive cases that will be reported at hospitals following the sudden surge in the cases of Coronavirus.
The daily numbers were in lakhs at the peak of the pandemic, which began in early 2020 and has seen more than 4.5 crore people getting infected and over 5.3 lakh deaths in about four years since then across the country. The number of people who have recuperated from the disease stands at over 4.4 crore with a national recovery rate of 98.81 per cent, according to the ministry's website.
