India recorded 743 fresh cases of COVID-19 in the last 24 hours. The total active caseload increased by seven, reaching 3,997, according to the Union Health Ministry.

As per official data, seven deaths have been reported in the country in the last 24 hours - three in Kerala two in Karnataka, and one each in Chhattisgarh and Tamil Nadu.

With this, the total count of coronavirus cases in India since its outbreak in January 2020 has reached 4,50,12,484 with an increase of 743 cases in the last 24 hours. The death toll due to COVID-19 cases in India has risen to, 5,33,358 reflecting an increase of seven deaths in the last 24 hours.

Last week, the highest daily number of fresh Covid cases in the country was 752, recorded on December 22. This week’s peak (so far) is only slightly higher, showing that infections were rising only gradually.

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%. According to the health ministry, 220.6 crore doses of Covid vaccines have been administeredin the country. Dr Neeraj Nischal, additional professor, department of medicine at AIIMS, said the available evidence on JN.1 did not suggest that there were any significantly increased disease severity parameters like increased hospitalisation, oxygen/ventilator requirement or mortality among infected persons, relative to the other currently circulating Omicron descendent lineages.