India on Saturday witnessed its biggest spike in a single day since May 21, 2023 as it recorded 752 COVID-19 cases taking the number of active infections in the country to 3,420. According to the data from Union Health Ministry data, four deaths have been reported in the last 24 hours taking the total death toll to 5,33,332. Of these, two deaths are from Kerala, one each in Rajasthan and Karnataka, as per the data.
Kerala recorded a big chunk of 266 cases out of a total of 752 in the country. The country's Covid case tally stood at 4.50 crore (4,50,07,964). As of now, the number of people recuperated from the disease has increased to 4,44,71,212, and the national recovery rate stands at 98.81 per cent, according to the health ministry's website.
The fatality rate stands at 1.19 per cent. The ministry said that 220.67 crore doses of Covid vaccine have been administered in the country so far.
Meanwhile, talking to news agency, former World Health Organisation (WHO) chief scientist Dr Soumya Swaminathan asserted that there is no need to panic currently as it is a variant of interest and not of concern. However, she asked the people to be cautious by taking proper precautionary measures.
"We need to be cautious, but we don't need to worry because we don't have any data to suggest that this variant JN.1 is more severe or it's going to cause more pneumonia, more death," the former DG of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said, quoted ANI.
The WHO recently classified JN.1 as a variant of interest, distinct from its parent lineage BA.2.86. However, the UN health body asserted that the overall risk posed by the sub-variant remains low based on current evidence. WHO has also said that the number of new COVID cases increased by 52 per cent during the past four-odd weeks.
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