Maharashtra reports 171 Covid-19 cases, two deaths; JN.1 variant tally at 110

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Maharashtra Thursday recorded 171 Covid-19 cases and two deaths, a health department official said.

The deaths took place in Solapur and Kolhapur, while Mumbai reported 32 cases, followed by 16 each in Thane city and Navi Mumbai, the health department's bulletin informed.

There are 914 active cases in the state, while the tally of those caused by the JN.1 variant stands at 110, it said. Maharashtra's recovery rate is 98.17 per cent.

Meanwhile, India saw a single-day rise of 760 new cases of Covid while two more people succumbed to the viral disease, the health ministry said on Thursday.

The number of active cases of the infection has been recorded at 4,423, it said.

The new fatalities -- one each from Kerala and Karnataka -- were reported in a span of 24 hours, according to the ministry's data updated at 8 am.

The number of daily cases had dropped to double-digits till December 5, but cases have again gone up after emergence of a new variant and cold weather conditions.

The daily numbers were in lakhs at the peak of the pandemic, which began in early 2020 and has seen more than 4.5 crore people getting infected and over 5.3 lakh deaths in about four years since then across the country.

The number of people who have recuperated from the disease stands at over 4.4 crore with a national recovery rate of 98.81 per cent, according to the ministry's website.

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According to the website, 220.67 crore doses of Covid vaccines have so far been administered in the country.

Meanwhile, two cases of Covid-19 sub-variant JN.1 have been detected in Odisha, a senior official said on Thursday.

The two cases were detected in Sundargarh and Bhubaneswar, Director of Health Services Bijay Kumar Mohapatra said, adding that the health conditions of both patients are stable.

"Samples of 28 people who were found to be Covid-positive were sent for genome sequencing and of them, two were found to be infected with the JN.1 variant," he said.

The patient from Sundargarh was under treatment at home and has completed his isolation period. None of his contacts were found to be symptomatic, Mohapatra said.

The other patient is an elderly woman who was under treatment at a private hospital in Bhubaneswar. She is stable at present, he said.

"We are following all protocols set for the JN.1 sub-variant," he added.

"Detection of a new variant of a virus is normal. After JN.1, another new variant of the Covid-19 may come. Besides, the scientific community has said that the severity of the JN.1 variant is not established yet. So, there is no need to panic," the director said.

At present, there are 25 active cases in the state, officials said. (With inputs from agencies)