New Delhi: COVID-19 cases in India have started increasing once again. The threat of JN.1 sub-variant is also being seen with its first case reported in Kerala. JN.1 is a descendant of the “pirola” variant BA 2.86, which is an Omicron subvariant. JN.1 has an additional mutation receptor binding domain (L455S) compared to BA 2.86. JN.1 has extensive resistance across receptor-binding domain classes 1, 2, and 3 and shows higher immune evasion than BA 2.86 and other resistant strains. The World Health Organization has classified JN.1 as a variant of interest. IMA COVID Task Force Dr Rajeev Jayadevan on Thursday said that the new strain can be problematic for people of old age and those with multiple comorbidities.
Ministry of Health and Family Welfare also noted the increase in cases of common flue and tweeted an advisory this morning.
In a press release, the Union Health Secretary emphasized the need for critical COVID control and management strategies. Given the recent surge in COVID-19 cases in some States/UTs in India and the detection of the first case of the new JN.1 variant of COVID-19 in the country, Shri Sudhansh Pant, Union Health Secretary sent a letter to States/UTs, highlighting the need for maintaining a state of constant vigil over the COVID situation in the country.
He underlined that “due to consistent and collaborative actions between Centre and State Governments, we have been able to sustain the trajectory at sustainable low rates”. However, as the COVID-19 virus continues to circulate and its epidemiology behavior gets settled with Indian weather conditions and circulation of other usual pathogens, it is important to keep the momentum going to effectively deal with the challenges in public health.
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