India reports 761 new Covid cases, 12 deaths in last 24 hours

India on Friday recorded 761 new Covid-19 cases and 12 deaths in the past 24 hours, the Union health ministry said.

A dozen new fatalities — five from Kerala, four from Karnataka, two from Maharashtra, and one from Uttar Pradesh — were reported in the span of 24 hours, according to ministry data. On Thursday, two deaths were reported, one each from Kerala and Karnataka.

Meanwhile, the total number of active cases further fell to 4,334 from Thursday's 4,423. As of now, the total number of coronavirus cases in India since the initial outbreak in January 2020 has reached 4.5 crore, while the death toll related to Covid cases has risen to a little over 5.33 lakh.

The new variant, JN.1 subvariant is a descendent of the Omicron subvariant known as BA.2.86 or Pirola, with Kerala being the first state to report a case. Kerala and Karnataka continue to witness JN.1 variant cases, with other affected states being Delhi, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, Telangana, Odisha, and Haryana, as per the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG).

These states collectively reported 619 cases of the sub-variant by Thursday, with Karnataka leading with 199 cases, followed by Kerala with 148. INSACOG data revealed that 239 Covid cases in December 2023 and 24 in November 2023 were identified with the presence of the JN.1 variant.

Kerala has the highest number of active cases at 1,249 in India, followed by Karnataka at 1,240, and Maharashtra at 914. Tamil Nadu's active cases stand at 190, and Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh at 128 each.

The overall recovery from Covid has reached over 4.4 crore individuals, reflecting a national recovery rate of 98.81 per cent. The country has administered a total of 220.67 crore doses of Covid vaccines, as per available data.