Covid Cases In India: Delhi Reports First JN.1 Variant Infection

Delhi reported its first case of sub-variant JN.1 amid surge in infections across the country.

A health worker running tests on a sample.

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New Delhi: Amid a surge in Covid-19 infections across the country, Delhi reported its first case of sub-variant JN.1 on Wednesday, news agency PTI quoted health officials as saying.   

According to the report, the active caseload in Delhi currently stands at 35 with nine fresh infections reported on Wednesday. Health Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj said three samples were sent for genome sequencing. One of them is JN.1 and the other two are Omicron variants, news agency ANI reported.

Meanwhile, a 28-year-old man with comorbidities died in Delhi on Wednesday. However, health officials ruled out Covid being the primary cause of death, PTI reported.

"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," an official told PTI.

As per health ministry data, till Tuesday, India had 109 JN.1 cases. Thirty-six cases were detected from Gujarat, 34 were from Karnataka, 14 from Goa, nine from Maharashtra, six from Kerala, four each from Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu, and two from Telangana.

READ | Covid Scare: Delhi Conducts 250-400 RT-PCR Tests Daily, No Death Amid Surge In JN.1 Cases, Says Minister

Amid the surge in number of Covid infections and JN.1 sub-variant cases, health officials have urged the people not to panic as 92 per cent of those infected are opting for home-based treatment and are showing mild symptoms.

There is also no increase in hospitalisation rates and Covid is an incidental finding in the patients admitted due to other medical conditions, officials said as reported by PTI.

Meanwhile, India reported a single-day rise of 529 Covid infections, taking the active caseload to 4,093 in the last 24 hours, as per health ministry data.

Three deaths, one from Gujarat and two from Karnataka, were reported during the same period.