India reports 605 new Covid cases, four deaths

New Delhi: The Union Health Ministry on Monday said the country reported 605 new Covid-19 cases and four deaths in the last 24 hours.

The four new fatalities were reported from Kerala, Karnataka and Tripura, according to the ministry data.

On Sunday, five deaths were reported in total -- from Maharashtra, Kerala and Jammu & Kashmir.

Meanwhile, the total number of active cases further fell to 4,002 from Sunday's 4,049.

As of now, the total number of coronavirus cases in India, since the initial outbreak in January 2020, has reached 4,50,18, 739, while the overall death toll has risen to 5,33,396.

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.

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, 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).

Data suggests that the JN.1 variant is not causing a significant rise in new cases or hospitalisations and deaths.

199 cases were reported in Karnataka, 148 in Kerala, 139 in Maharashtra, 47 in Goa, 36 from Gujarat, 30 each from Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan, 26 in Tamil Nadu, 21 in New Delhi, three in Odisha, two in Telangana and one in Haryana.

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.

--IANS

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