New Delhi, January 12 : India registered 609 new cases of COVID-19, marking a continued decline in infections, as per the health ministry’s update on Friday. The total number of active cases has reduced to 3,368, with three recent deaths reported in a 24-hour span, two in Kerala and one in Karnataka.
The daily case count had dropped to double digits until December 5, 2023, but a resurgence occurred after the emergence of a new variant and cold weather conditions. On December 31, 2023, 841 new cases were reported, constituting 0.2 percent of the peak cases recorded in May 2021 during the Delta wave.
Among the active cases, approximately 92 percent are recovering under home isolation. The health ministry emphasized that the data indicates the JN.1 variant is not causing an exponential rise in new cases, nor is it leading to a surge in hospitalization and mortality.
India has experienced three waves of COVID-19, with the Delta wave in April-June 2021 reporting the highest incidence of daily new cases and deaths. On May 7, 2021, the peak saw 4,14,188 new cases and 3,915 deaths.
Since the onset of the pandemic in early 2020, over 4.5 crore people have been infected, and more than 5.3 lakh have succumbed to the virus across the country. The number of individuals who have successfully recovered from the disease stands at over 4.4 crore, with a national recovery rate of 98.81 percent, according to the ministry’s website.
In the ongoing vaccination drive, the country has administered 220.67 crore doses of COVID-19 vaccines, a crucial effort in controlling the spread of the virus.
