Amid the rising number of coronavirus cases across the country, India has reported a total of 145 cases of subvariant JN.1 till December 28. According to the health ministry sources, these samples were collected between November 21 and December 18, 2023.
The highest number of JN.1 variant cases have been reported from Kerala. The state reported 41 cases of the JN.1 subvariant, the majority of which were home-isolated, official sources said. Ahead of the New Year, both the central and state governments are keeping a close watch on the new Omicron Subvariant JN.1. As per the latest updates, India reported 797 new COVID-19 cases and the active cases tally stands at 4,000 in the last 24 hours.
JN.1 is a Variant of Interest (VOI) which is under intense scientific scrutiny. The World Health Organisation (WHO) reported more than 7,000 cases of COVID-19 JN.1 subvariant from 41 countries.
Former ICMR DG on JN.1 COVID variant
Dr Soumya Swaminathan, former DG of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), said that the JN.1 COVID variant belongs to the same Omicron family, but because it has certain mutations, which makes it more transmissible and more infectious. "So it's been classified as a variant of interest by the WHO. However, till now, the public health risk is still low in the sense that because we all have immunity now because of the vaccines and the natural infections, we've had in the past, and that immunity still seems to be quite strong. It's still protecting most of us from getting severely ill. What we are seeing now is a surge of infections and because the testing has been stepped up in the recent few days, as well as the genomics surveillance, the more we test, the more we are going to detect, and also we're going to find more JN 1. variant in the country..." she added.
AIIMS issues guidelines for COVID
The All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Delhi has issued guidelines for COVID-19 suspected or positive cases that will be reported at hospitals following the sudden surge in the cases of Coronavirus in the country. The JN.1 sub-variant is a descendant of the Omicron subvariant known as BA.2.86 or Pirola. The first case of the JN.1 variant of COVID-19 was reported in Kerala. A total of 109 cases of the JN.1 sub-variant have been detected in India until Wednesday, as per Health Ministry sources.
(With inputs from ANI)
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