India reports 133 new COVID-19 cases, active tally at 1,389

India saw a singleday rise of 133 new COVID19 cases while the number of active cases stood at 1389 the Union health ministry said on Wednesday reported news agency PTITwo deaths one each from Gujarat and Maharashtra have been reported in 24 hours according to the ministrys data updated at 8 am reported PTIThe number of daily cases had dropped to doubledigits till December 5 but cases had begun to increase after the emergence of a new variant and cold weather conditions reported PTIAfter December 5 a maximum of a singleday rise of 841 new COVID19 cases was reported on December 31 2023 which is 02 per cent of the peak cases reported in May 2021 official sources said reported PTIA majority around 92 per cent of the total active cases are under home isolation they saidThe currently available data suggests that the JN1 variant is neither leading to an exponential rise in the new cases nor a surge in the hospitalisation and mortality the official source stated reported PTIIndia has witnessed three waves of COVID19 in the past with the peak incidence of daily new cases and deaths being reported during the delta wave in AprilJune 2021At its peak 414188 new COVID19 cases and 3915 deaths were reported on May 7 2021Since the pandemic began in early 2020 there have been more than 45 crore people getting infected and over 53 lakh deaths in about four years since then across the countryThe number of people who have recuperated from the disease stands at over 44 crore with a national recovery rate of 9881 per cent according to the ministrys websiteAccording to the website 22067 crore doses of Covid vaccines have so far been administered in the countryMeanwhile JN1 the latest Covid19 variant from the lineage of Omicron making a fresh surge around the globe represents very serious evolution of Covid virus according to global expertsJN1 classified as a variant of interest VOI by the World Health Organization WHO due to its rapid spreadIt was first detected in Luxembourg in August The WHO expects JN1 to increase the burden of respiratory infections in many countriesThe WHO has just called JN1 a VOI variant of interest and that just doesnrsquot cut it with the growth advantage this variant has demonstrated It is just extraordinary Dr Eric Topol founder and director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute in CaliforniaUS was quoted as saying to FortuneJN1 is a descendent lineage of BA286 with the earliest sample collected on August 25 2023 In comparison with BA286 JN1 has the additional L455S mutation in the spike protein making it more transmissibleWith inputs from PTI