Covid continues to rear its head amid rising JN.1 worries
Covid-19 cases continued on Thursday, with 702 new infections reported across the country, according to the data from the ministry of health and family welfare. With this, the country's active caseload stands at 4,097.
Six Covid-related deaths were also reported, with two deaths reported in Maharashtra and one each in Karnataka, Kerala, West Bengal, and Delhi within the last 24 hours.
This comes amid growing concerns about the JN.1 variant of the coronavirus.
As the national capital reported its first case of Covid-19 sub-variant JN.1, the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Delhi issued guidelines on Wednesday for handling suspected or positive Covid patients arriving at hospitals. Delhi health minister Saurabh Bhardwaj on Thursday reviewed preparations at various hospitals and instructed the authorities to brace themselves by creating wards for Covid patients in case hospitalisations go up.
Classified as a variant of interest by the World Health Organization (WHO), the resurgence of cases is being closely monitored, particularly due to concerns regarding its rapid expansion.
JN.1 is a sub-lineage of the Omicron variant and has been identified as the most prevalent strain in the United States, accounting for over 44% of cases there.
The network of laboratories set up to monitor genomic variations of the coronavirus in India is likely to hold a meeting on Friday to review the situation.
«The proportion of JN.1 versus others will be known in the meeting tomorrow. We will understand how rapidly it is increasing.
