India has reported 743 fresh cases of COVID-19 and one death in the past 24 hours, the federal health ministry reported on Saturday. That was the highest number of cases reported in one day in the previous 225 days — more than seven months.
Among seven fatalities, three were reported from Kerala, two from Karnataka and one each from Chhattisgarh and Tamil Nadu were reported.
Since the first week of December, India has seen a spike in daily COVID cases amid the festive season and cold weather conditions.
The total number of active caseloads now stands at 4,097, according to the Health Ministry.
The first outbreak of COVID-19 in India was reported in January 2020. The total count of cases since then has reached 45 million, while the death toll has risen to 533,358.
Meanwhile, Dr Soumya Swaminathan, former DG of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), has warned that the JN.1 Covid-19 variant is more transmissible and infectious than other variants.
"It (the vaccine-induced immunity against COVID-19) is still protecting most of us from getting severely ill. What we are seeing now is a surge of infections," Dr Swaminathan told Indian media.
"Because the testing has been stepped up in the recent few days, as well as the genomics surveillance, the more we test, the more we are going to detect. Also, we're going to find more JN 1. variant in the country," he added.
Meanwhile, in view of mass gatherings during New Year, many Indian states are preparing for another surge in cases, increasing the number of available hospital beds, along with oxygen cylinders and testing kits.