COVID-19 update: 250 JN.1 cases reported in Maharashtra so far, highest in India, says report

A total of 827 cases of the JN.1 COVID-19 subvariant were reported from 12 states in India as of January 11. The highest number of cases were logged in Maharashtra, which has reported a total of 250 JN.1 cases so far, news agency ANI reported citing sources.

As of January 8, the country reported a total of 819 JN.1 cases from 12 states. While 250 cases were reported from Maharashtra, 199 came from Karnataka, 148 from Kerala, 49 from Goa, 36 from Gujarat, 30 from Andhra Pradesh, 26 each from Tamil Nadu and Telangana, 21 from Delhi, 3 from Odisha and 1 from Haryana.

Moreover, India recorded 514 new cases of COVID-19 in the last 24 hours while the number of active cases went down to 3,422, as per the Union Health Ministry data. Two deaths in Maharashtra and one in Karnataka have been reported in 24 hours.

The number of people who recovered from the contagion stands at more than 4.4 crore wiht a national recovery rate of 98.81 per cent. As per the Health Ministry website, 220.67 crore doses of vaccines have been administered in the country.

The number of coronavirus cases dropped to double digits till December 5, 2023 but saw a resurgence after a new coronavirus sub-variant JN.1 and cold weather conditions. After December 5 last year, a total of 841 new cases were reported on December 31, 2023, 0.2 per cent of the peak cases reported in May 2021.

Around 92 per cent of the total active cases at the time were recovering under home isolation. "The currently available data suggests that the JN.1 sub-variant is neither leading to an exponential rise in the new cases nor a surge in the hospitalisation and mortality," the official source stated.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has classified JN.1 as a separate variant of interest (VOI) due to its rapidly increasing speed, while adding it poses a "low" risk to the global public health at large.

Previously, India reported three waves of COVID-19 with a massive rise in daily new cases and deaths during the delta wave in April-June 2021. During its peak, more than 4.14 lakh new cases and 3,915 deaths due to coronavirus were reported on May 7, 2021.

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