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India is seeing a fresh rise in Covid-19 cases over the past few weeks amid a global scare of the virus. India has reported 257 active cases of Coronavirus in the country, with states like Kerala, Maharashtra and Delhi reporting the highest infection count.

Officials have said that most of the Covid cases in the country are mild in nature and the patients are under home care. The concerns over the rising infections came after an increase in Covid-19 cases in Singapore, Hong Kong and other countries.

Amid the fresh rise across some states, India has detected two new variants, which are driving the caseload in the country. The Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG), a central government agency, has categorised the cases on the basis of two variants: NB.1.8.1 and LF.7.

According to the INSACOG data, one case of the newly emerging COVID-19 variant NB.1.8.1, which has been reported from Tamil Nadu. Meanwhile, four cases of LF.7 have been detected in the country from Gujarat. 

However, the World Health Organization (WHO) has classified the LF.7 and NB.1.8 subvariants as Variants Under Monitoring (VUMs), not as Variants of Concern (VOCs) or Variants of Interest (VOIs) as of May, a report in news agency PTI said.

Though the NB.1.8.1 variant is termed as 'posing a low public health risk' by WHO, it carries spike protein mutations — A435S, V445H, and T478I — that may result in increased transmissibility and immune escape compared to earlier variants.

However, the two variants are contributing to a rise in Covid-19 cases in China and other parts of Asia.

But in India, the most common variant remains JN.1, comprising 53 per cent of samples tested, followed by BA.2 (26 per cent) and other Omicron sublineages (20 per cent), according to INSACOG. 

Deaths Due To Covid-19

A 84-year-old-man with severe comorbidities died in Bengaluru on Saturday due to Covid-19. Officials said that the man with severe comorbidities got admitted to a private hospital in Whitefield, Bengaluru, on May 13 and his Covid-19 test results came positive on Saturday. The man had died on May 17, while the results of Covid test came on Saturday showing positive. 

Another Covid-19 patient died in Thane in Maharashtra on Saturday. There are a total of 18 active Covid-19 patients in the city and only one of them is undergoing treatment at hospital while others are in home isolation, officials said.