JN.1 Covid variant 'more transmissible, more infectious': Ex-ICMR expert warns of more cases in India
Covid-19 cases, according to Union Health Ministry data. As per official data, six deaths have been reported in the country in the last 24 hours - two in Maharashtra, and one each in Delhi, Karnataka, Kerala, and West Bengal. Dr Soumya Swaminathan, Former DG, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has warned that the JN.1 Covid-19 variant is more transmissible, and infectious, as compared to other variants.
The health expert cited “certain mutations" for the JN.1 Covid-19 variant's transmissibility. Swaminathan said that the JN.1 Covid-19 variant belongs to the Omicron family, the same variant that drove the third Covid wave in India. However, Swaminathan also assured, “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 (the vaccine-induced immunity against Covid-19) is 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..." Ahead of the New Year, both centre and state governments are keeping a vigilant eye on the new Covid variant JN.1.
As many as 145 Covid-19 sub-variant JN.1 have been detected in the country as of 28 December. All the states' health ministers are assessing the preparedness of the hospitals. The Maharashtra government on Thursday asked people and institutions in the state to remain alert for the next 10 to 15 days.
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