Sixty-three cases of COVID-19 sub-variant JN.1 had been reported in the country till Sunday, including 34 in Goa, official sources said on Monday.?Nine cases have been detected in Maharashtra, eight in Karnataka, six in Kerala, four in Tamil Nadu, and two in Telangana, they added.

"There was a meeting with the Centre over COVID-19 situation and we were informed that the cases are increasing more in southern states like Kerala, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu," Bharadwaj told reporters on the sidelines of an event. "We have been conducting tests and we have receiving on an average three to four cases per day which is less than even one per cent. We have conducted mock drills and made all necessary arrangements," he said.

States have been asked to monitor and report district-wise cases of Influenza-like Illness (ILI) and Severe Acute Respiratory Illness (SARI) from all health facilities regularly for an early detection of a rising trend of cases. India saw a single-day rise of 628 new coronavirus cases with the number of active cases rising up to 4,054, the Union health ministry said on Monday.

The death toll due to the viral infection was recorded at 5,33,334 till date since January 2020, with one new death reported from Kerala in a span of 24 hours, according to the ministry's data updated at 8 am. The JN.1 (BA.2.86.1.1) sub-variant of Covid emerged in August in Luxembourg. It is a descendant of the BA.2.86 lineage (Pirola) of SARS COV2.