New Delhi, Jan 17: The health ministry reported on Wednesday that although the number of active COVID-19 cases in India has decreased to 2,556, there was a daily increase of 269 new cases of the virus. Based on statistics released by the ministry at 8 am, three deaths have been reported in the last 24 hours, two of which are from Kerala and one from Maharashtra. Before December 5, the number of cases per day had fallen to double digits; however, with the appearance of a new variation and the arrival of cold weather, cases started to rise again. According to government sources, after December 5, there was a maximum one-day increase of 841 new cases recorded on December 31, 2023, or 0.2% of the peak instances recorded in May 2021. Approximately 92% of all active cases are being treated at home in isolation. According to the official source, “the currently available data suggests that the JN.1 sub-variant is not causing an exponential rise in new cases nor a surge in hospitalisation and mortality.” India has previously experienced three waves of COVID-19, with the delta wave, which is expected to occur in April–June 2021, reporting the highest daily incidence of new cases and deaths. On May 7, 2021, the number of new cases and deaths reported was 414,188, with 3,915 fatalities. Over 4.5 crore people have become sick and over 5.3 lakh individuals have died nationwide in the roughly four years since the pandemic started in early 2020. According to the ministry’s website, nearly 4.4 crore individuals have recovered from the illness, meaning that the country’s recovery rate is 98.81 percent. As per the website, the nation has administered 220.67 crore doses of the Covid vaccination so far.
