India records 514 new cases of Covid-19, active cases decline to 3,422

India recorded 514 new cases of COVID-19, while the number of active cases of the infection has declined to 3,422, the health ministry said on Thursday. Three deaths two in Maharashtra and one in Karnataka have been reported in a span of 24 hours, according to the ministry's data updated at 8 am. The number of daily cases had dropped to double-digits till December 5, 2023, but cases began to increase after the emergence of a new sub-variant -- JN.1 -- and cold weather conditions. After December 5, a maximum of a single-day rise of 841 new cases was reported on December 31, 2023, which is 0.2 per cent of the peak cases reported in May 2021, official sources said. Of the total active cases, around 92 per cent are recovering under home isolation. "The currently available data suggests that the JN.1 sub-variant is neither leading to an exponential rise in the new cases nor a surge in the hospitalisation and mortality," the official source stated. India has witnessed three waves of