India logged 573 new cases of Covid-19 in the past 24 hours, while the number of active cases of the infection has increased to 4,565, the Union Health Ministry said on Tuesday. Two new fatalities due to Covid-- each from Haryana and Karnataka, were also reported, according to the ministry's data updated at 8 am.

A total of 263 cases of the coronavirus sub-variant JN.1 have been detected in the country so far.

The Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG)'s data showed 180 Covid cases in the country in December had the presence of JN.1, while 17 such cases were detected in November.

The number of daily Covid-19 cases had dropped to double-digits till December 5 last year, but cases have again gone up after the 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 98.8 per cent, according to the ministry's website.

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

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has classified JN.1 as a separate "variant of interest" given its rapidly increasing spread, but said it poses a "low" global public health risk.

The JN.1 sub-variant of coronavirus was previously classified as a variant of interest (VOI) as part of the BA.2.86 sub-lineage, the parent lineage that is classified as a VOI, the world body said.