India reports 236 new COVID-19 cases, active tally at 2,031

India has logged 236 new COVID19 cases while the number of active cases of the infection stood at 2031 the health ministry said on Tuesday reported news agency PTIThree new deaths one from Karnataka and two from West Bengal have been reported in a span of 24 hours according to the ministrys data updated at 8 amThe number of daily cases had dropped to doubledigits till December 5 2023 but they again began to increase after emergence of a new variant and cold weather conditionsA single day rise of 841 new COVID19 cases were reported on December 31 2023 which is 02 per cent of the peak cases reported in May 2021 official sources said reported PTIOf the total active cases a large majority of these around 92 per cent are recovering under home isolationThe currently available data suggests that the JN1 variant is neither leading to an exponential rise in new cases nor a surge in hospitalisation and mortality the sources stated reported PTIIndia has witnessed three waves of COVID19 in the past with the peak incidence of daily new cases and deaths being reported in the Delta wave during AprilJune 2021At its peak 414188 new cases and 3915 deaths were reported on May 7 2021Since the pandemic began in early 2020 more than 45 crore people have got infected and over 53 lakh people have died across the country due to the infectionThe 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 countryOn Monday India reported a singleday rise of 203 Covid cases while the active caseload was recorded at 2034 Two deaths one each in Kerala and Maharashtra were reportedMeanwhile 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