New Delhi: India’s federal health ministry on Tuesday said 475 new COVID-19 cases and six deaths have been reported in the last 24 hours.
The six fatalities were reported from Karnataka, Chhattisgarh and Assam, according to the ministry data.
On Monday, four deaths were reported from Kerala, Karnataka and Tripura.
Meanwhile, the total number of active cases further fell to 3,919 from Monday’s 4,002.
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 total count of JN.1 cases in Maharashtra to 249.
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 and 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).
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.
