NEW DELHI : Covid cases continued to rise, with India reporting 628 fresh cases and one death in the past 24 hours, the Union health ministry said on Monday. The active caseload of covid-19 infections rose from 3,742 on Sunday to 4,054 showed ministry data.
A death was reported from Kerala, bringing the national fatality toll to 5,33,334. Other states are also seeing a surge in fresh covid cases.
On Sunday, Maharashtra reported 50 new cases, according to a daily bulletin from health department.
According to data from the Maharashtra government, out of the fresh cases, nine were diagnosed with JN.1, bringing the total infections linked to the sub-variant in the state to 10—five from Thane city, two from Pune city, and one each from Akola city, rural areas of Pune district, and Sindhudurg district. One of the Pune residents had recently travelled to the US.
As of 24 December , 63 JN.1 covid cases have been reported in India, including 34 cases in Goa, nine in Maharashtra, eight in Karnataka, six in Kerala, four in Tamil Nadu and two in Telangana, according to the Union health ministry.
Rajasthan reported 11 fresh covid cases, including seven in Jaipur, and one each in Alwar, Dausa, Kota and Sawai Madhopur districts.
On Sunday, the health ministry had reported a single-day increase of 656 new covid-19 cases in India, and one death.
The World Health Organization has issued a statement urging South-East Asian countries to enhance surveillance, and for individuals to adopt protective measures in view of rising numbers of respiratory diseases, including covid and its new sub-variant JN.1, along with influenza.
“The covid-19 virus continues to evolve, change, and circulate in all countries globally. While current evidence suggests the additional public health risk posed by JN.1 is low we must continue to track the evolution of the virus to tailor our response. For this, countries must strengthen surveillance and sequencing, ensuring sharing of data,” said Dr. Poonam Khetrapal Singh, the regional director of WHO South-East Asia.
According to the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, covid symptoms are very similar to seasonal influenza, making it difficult to distinguish the JN.1 from other sub-variants of the Omicron strain, such as fever, nasal discharge and cough. It said there could be occasional diarrhoea, severe body aches, but usually the patients are recovering within 2-5 days.
JN.1 is a variant that stands out with an additional spike protein, enhancing its transmissibility compared to the long-existing BA.2.86. Emerging as a variant of the Omicron strain of SARS-CoV-2, JN.1 is a highly mutated strain branching from the BA.2.86 variant, also known as Pirola.
Initially identified in India in August, the BA.2.86 lineage carries over 30 mutations in the spike protein. While both JN.1 and BA.2.86 share similar characteristics, a key distinction is the extra spike protein in JN.1.
In May, WHO had declared that covid is no longer a global health emergency. Regarding the JN.1 variant, WHO classified it as a “variant of interest” due to its increasing spread, but said that it poses low global public threat.
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600-plus covid cases for the second day | Mint – Mint
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