NEW DELHI: India saw a single-day rise of 157 COVID-19 infections while the number of active cases was recorded at 1,496, the Union health ministry said on Wednesday.

Two new deaths one each from Chhattisgarh and Uttar Pradesh 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 but it began to increase after the emergence of a new variant, JN.1, and amid cold weather conditions.

After December 5, the highest single day rise of 841 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 1,496 active cases, a large majority (around 92 per cent) are recovering in home isolation.

"The currently available data suggests that the JN.1 variant is neither leading to an exponential rise in the new cases nor a surge in the hospitalisation and mortality," an official source stated.

India has witnessed three waves of COVID-19 in the past with the peak incidence of daily cases and deaths being reported during the Delta wave in April-June 2021.

At its peak, 4,14,188 new cases and 3,915 deaths were reported on May 7, 2021.

Since the pandemic began in early 2020, more than 4.5 crore people have been infected and over 5.3 lakh have died 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 98.81 per cent, according to the health ministry website.

According to the website, 220.67 crore doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in the country so far.