India reports 159 new Covid cases, one death in 24 hrs

New Delhi: India logged 159 new Covid-19 cases on Saturday while one fatality was reported from Kerala in the last 24 hours, taking the death toll to 5,33,444, as per the Health and Family Welfare Ministry.

Meanwhile, the total number of active cases further fell to 1,623, while until last week more than 2,000 active cases were recorded.

As of now, the total number of Coronavirus cases in India, since the initial outbreak in January 2020, has reached 4,50,24,894.

According to INSACOG, over 1,500 cases are of the Covid-19 sub-variant JN.1 in India, with Madhya Pradesh the latest state to be reporting its presence.

The 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.

Maharashtra led with more than 450 cases, followed by Karnataka, reflecting regional variations in sub-variant prevalence.

Currently, Andhra Pradesh leads with over 215 cases of the variant. Kerala and Gujarat follow closely behind.

Other states reporting the variant include West Bengal, Goa, and Tamil Nadu. Rajasthan and Telangana have recorded over 30 cases with Chhattisgarh and Delhi following.

Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Odisha, Uttarakhand, Manipur, Madhya Pradesh, and Nagaland have also reported a few cases.

Monitoring and further assessment of the situation is ongoing to address the spread of this sub-variant, the ministry said.

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

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.

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