New Delhi, Jan 17 (IANS): India has logged 269 new Covid-19 cases, and as per the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Wednesday there were three deaths in the past 24 hours.

With these deaths, the Covid toll in the country stands at 5,33,420.

The total number of active cases further fell to 2,556 from, while until last week more than 3,000 active cases were recorded.

As of now, the total number of coronavirus cases in India, since the initial outbreak in January 2020, has reached 4,50,22,488.

In a concerning development, the JN.1 subvariant of the Omicron strain has swiftly become the dominant variant in Maharashtra.

JN.1 sub-variant is a descendant of the Omicron subvariant known as BA.2.86 or Pirola, with Kerala being the first state to report a case.

According to INSACOG, the number of JN.1 cases has crossed 1,000. Karnataka has reported 214 cases, followed by Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Kerala, Goa, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Telangana, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Haryana, Odisha, West Bengal, and Uttarakhand.

The highest number of cases were reported in Maharashtra with 250, followed by Karnataka and Kerala.

Monitoring and further assessment of the situation are ongoing to address the spread of this sub-variant.

Recent genetic studies on coronavirus samples from January reveal that the JN.1 subvariant accounts for nearly all cases in Maharashtra.

INSACOG's data revealed that 239 Covid cases in December 2023, and 24 in November 2023, were identified with the presence of the JN.1 variant.

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.