Covid-19 sub-variant JN.1 has made its presence felt in at least 12 States from January 7 till date on Monday as the incidents rose to 682, official sources said on Monday. They said 199 cases have been reported from Karnataka, 148 from Kerala, 139 from Maharashtra, 47 from Goa, 36 from Gujarat, 30 from Andhra Pradesh, 30 from Rajasthan, 26 from Tamil Nadu, 21 from Delhi, three from Odisha, two from Telangana and one from Haryana.
Even though the number of cases is rising and the JN.1 sub-variant has been detected in the country, there is no cause of immediate concern as the majority of those infected are opting for home-based treatment, indicating mild illness, officials said.
In the meantime, India has logged 605 new cases of Covid, while the number of active cases of the infection stood at 4,002. Four deaths -- two from Kerala and one each from Karnataka and Tripura -- have been reported in a span of 24 hours, according to the ministry’s data updated at 8 am.
The number of daily cases had dropped to double-digits till December 5, 2023 but cases began to increase after emergence of a new variant and cold weather conditions.
After December 5, 841 new cases were reported on December 31, 2023 which was 0.2 per cent of the peak cases reported in May 2021, official sources said.
Of the total active cases, a large majority of these (around 92 per cent) are recovering under home isolation.
“The currently available data suggests that the JN.1 variant is neither leading to an exponential rise in the new cases nor a surge in hospitalisation and mortality,” the sources stated.
India has witnessed three waves of Covid-19 in the past with the peak incidence of daily new cases and deaths being reported during the Delta wave during April-June 2021. At its peak, 414,188 new cases and 3,915 deaths were reported on May 7, 2021.
Since the pandemic began in early 2020, more than 4.5 crore people have got infected and over 5.3 lakh deaths have died 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.
According to the ministry website, 220.67 crore doses of Covid vaccines have so far been administered in the country. The Centre has asked the states and Union territories to maintain a constant vigil amid an uptick in the number of Covid cases and the detection of the JN.1 sub-variant in the country.
States have been urged to ensure effective compliance with the detailed operational guidelines for revised surveillance strategy for COVID-19 shared by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
