Tally of JN.1 Covid-19 cases reaches 69 in India, active infections go up to 4,170

India has so far detected 69 cases of the Covid-19 variant JN.1, PTI reported on Tuesday.

Of these, 34 cases were in Karnataka, 14 in Goa, nine in Maharashtra, six in Kerala, four in Tamil Nadu and two in Telangana, according to ANI.

The World Health Organization had last week categorised the JN.1 sub-strain of the coronavirus as a variant of interest. The global health body designates a variant as one of interest when it leads to increased infections, or when it changes characteristics such as transmissibility or severity of the disease.

However, officials have said that the JN.1 sub-strain is not a cause of immediate concern as 92% of those infected are opting for home-based treatment, indicating a mild illness.

A total of 412 fresh cases of Covid-19 were recorded in the country in the 24-hour period ending at 8 am on Tuesday, data from the health ministry showed. With this, the number of active cases of the infection has gone up to 4,170.

The Covid-19 tally in India, since the start of the pandemic, stands at 4.50 crore. With three more fatalities being recorded in Karnataka, the toll has reached 5,33,337. The fatality rate is 1.19%.

The tally of people who have recovered from the disease in the country has reached 4.44 crore with the national recovery rate at 98.81%.

Union Health Secretary Sudhansh Pant had last week stressed the need to put in place public health measures to minimise the risk of transmission in view of the holiday season.

The Centre had asked state governments to monitor and report influenza-like illnesses and severe acute respiratory illnesses.

The government asked states to increase the number of reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction, or RT-PCR, tests and send samples that are positive for genome sequencing to the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium laboratories to detect new variants of the virus.