India has recorded 602 new Covid-19 infections in the past 24 hours, pushing the the total number of active cases to 4,440 on Wednesday.
The country had recorded 865 new cases on May 19.
Five new fatalities -- one each from Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Punjab, two from Kerala -- have been reported in the span of 24 hours, according to the ministry's data.
As of now, the total number of coronavirus cases in India, since the outbreak in January 2020, has reached 4,50,15, 083.
The death toll related to Covid cases in the country has risen to 5,33,371.
The new variant, JN.1 subvariant is descendent of the Omicron subvariant known as BA.2.86 or Pirola, with Kerala being the first state to report a case.
"A total of 511 cases of the JN.1 series variant have been reported from 11 states till January 2. Karnataka has reported 199 cases of the sub-variant. Kerala has reported 148 cases. 47 cases have been reported from Goa, 36 from Gujarat, 32 from Maharashtra," the health ministry has said.
The overall recovery from Covid has reached over 4.4 crore individuals, reflecting a national recovery rate of 98.81 per cent.
The country has administered a total of 220.67 crore doses of Covid vaccines, as per the available data.
(Except for the headline, this story, from a syndicated feed, has not been edited by Odishatv.in staff)