India recorded 529 fresh Covid-19 cases in a single day, while the country’s active infection count stood at 4,093, the health ministry said on Wednesday. Three new fatalities – two from Karnataka and one from Gujarat – were reported in a span of 24 hours, according to the ministry’s data updated at 8 am.
The daily case count, which had decreased to double-digits until December 5, has surged again due to the emergence of a new variant and cold weather conditions. Currently, India has reported a total of 450,10,189 Covid cases, with a national recovery rate of 98.81 percent and a fatality rate of 1.19 percent, as per the ministry’s website.
Concerns are rising over the increasing cases of the COVID-19 sub-variant JN.1, with a total of 109 cases detected in India as of Wednesday. Goa has witnessed the highest surge, reporting 34 cases in a single day on Monday.
As per the daily data of last 24 hours released on Wednesday, a maximum of 36 cases of the new variant were reported from Gujarat, 34 were reported from Karnataka, 14 from Goa, 9 from Maharashtra, 6 from Kerala, and, four from Rajasthan. In addition to this, Tamil Nadu reported four Covid-19 new variant cases and Telangana reported two, reported ANI citing sources.
In a sigh of relief, most of the cases reported don’t represent any clustering in areas. Moreover, most of the JN.1 subvariant cases have mild symptoms.
Meanwhile, the total number of active cases of COVID-19 in the country stood at 4,054, with the highest number of cases coming from Kerala.
“Thirty-seven COVID-19 cases are from Goa, 344 from Karnataka, 3128 from Kerala, and 50 from Maharashtra,” according to Health Ministry data.
Delhi reports first case of covid sub-variant JN.1
Delhi has reported its first case of COVID-19 sub-variant JN.1, PTI quoted officials on Wednesday. Delhi has more than 35 active cases with nine fresh infections being reported on Wednesday, an official said.
“The man was not from Delhi and was referred to a private hospital recently. He had multiple comorbidities and the Covid finding was incidental. The sample of the man has been sent for genome sequencing and a report is awaited,” official said.
Public Health Director advises children and elderly
The Director of Public Health and Family Welfare has advised children under the age of 10 and senior citizens to refrain from stepping out of their homes amidst the increasing cases of Covid disease.
“Children less than 10 years of age and elders above 60 years of age are advised to avoid going outdoors unless mandatory. There is a higher incidence of COVID disease in the age group of 20 to 50 years, hence people are requested to exercise due precaution while going for work/essential activities. Everybody should wear a mask when he/she goes out of the house. Face masks are the first line of defence against Covid-19. Not wearing a mask is punishable by a fine,” the Director of Public Health & Family Welfare, said.
