Overview

• Active cases have declined to 5,608 as of June 20, down from a peak above 7,000 earlier this month.
• Health officials identify NB.1.8.1 and LF.7 as the main sub-variants driving infections without increasing disease severity.
• Four Covid-19 deaths were reported in the past 24 hours—from Delhi, Punjab, Kerala and Maharashtra—bringing the year’s total to 120.
• The Union Health Ministry has directed states to review hospital readiness, ensuring sufficient oxygen supplies, isolation beds, ventilators and critical medicines.
• The World Health Organization designates a new variant called ‘Nimbus’ for monitoring while ICMR continues genome sequencing to track emerging strains.