India currently has 4,026 active Covid-19 cases, ministry portal shows

Amid the ongoing spike in Covid-19 cases in the Far East countries in Singapore and Hong Kong, India currently has 4,026 active Covid-19 cases, according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare’s Covid-19 dashboard. In the past 24 hours, 65 fresh cases of Covid-19 have been reported in the country, with 512 discharges or recoveries in the same period.

Currently, Kerala has the highest number of active Covid-19 cases in India, with 1416 active cases of Covid-19 cases. The state also recorded a fatality, an 80-year-old male with severe pneumonia, Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome, Diabetes Mellitus, hypertension, and coronary artery disease.    

Kerala is followed by Maharashtra, with 494 active cases of Covid-19 cases. It also recorded two fatalities, a 70-year-old female with Diabetes Mellitus, and a 73-year-old Female with Diabetes Mellitus and hypertension. Gujarat has also recorded 397 cases in the past 24 hours.   

In total, five Covid-19-related deaths have been reported in the past 24 hours, but those who succumbed to Covid-19 had co-morbidities, according to the ministry. In Tamil Nadu, a 69-year-old female with type 2 Diabetes Mellitus and Parkinson's Disease succumbed to Covid-19, whereas in West Bengal, a 43-year-old female with acute coronary syndrome, septic shock, and acute kidney injury died of Covid-19. 

Most Covid-19 cases reported in India currently show mild symptoms, with low levels of hospitalisations. The JN.1 sub-variant, a sub-lineage of the Omicron variant, had a frequency of 49.6% in May, whereas Omicron had a frequency of 44.4%, according to the data available from the Indian Biological Data Centre.  

The JN.1 sub-variant is believed to be the mutating variant that is believed to be causing the surge in Singapore and Hong Kong. It has evolved from the Pirola variant and was first reported in Luxembourg in 2023. In December of the same year, WHO classified it as a ‘variant of interest’. 

Last month, a review meeting conducted by the Union Health Secretary—with the Secretary, Department of Health Research and Director General, Indian Council of Medical Research, DGHS, National Centre for Disease Control, etc., to take stock of Covid-19 infections in India—concluded that the Covid-19 virus variants currently in circulation are not more transmissible and do not cause more severe disease compared to the previously circulating variants.