India reports 441 new Covid cases, no fresh deaths

New Delhi: India has logged 441 new Covid-19 cases on Saturday, and as per the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, there have been no deaths in the past 24 hours, maintaining the country's death toll at 5,33,412.

Meanwhile, the total number of active cases further fell to 3,238 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 4,50,20,942, while the overall death toll has risen to 5,33,412.

As of January 11, a total of 827 cases of the Covid-19 sub-variant JN.1 have been reported across 12 states in India.

The highest number of cases were reported in Maharashtra with 250, followed by Karnataka with 199, and Kerala with 155.

Other states reporting cases include Goa, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Delhi, Odisha, and Haryana.

Monitoring and further assessment of the situation are ongoing to address the spread of this sub-variant.

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.

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.