Coronavirus cases have started increasing once again in the country. In view of this, the Central Government has issued an advisory to the state governments. It has been said in the advisory that keeping in mind the upcoming festive season, it is necessary to take some precautionary measures for the safety of the people so that the risk of spread of this virus can be reduced as much as possible.
In this advisory, states have been instructed to keep an eye on district-wise data of diseases like influenza. Also keep updating in this regard regularly.
Centre issues advisory to States in view of a recent upsurge in COVID-19 cases and detection of first case of JN.1 variant in India. States urged to maintain a state of constant vigil over the COVID situation. States to report & monitor district-wise SARI and ILI cases on a… pic.twitter.com/NpS1wAQLM8
— ANI (@ANI) December 18, 2023
This advisory has been issued after the confirmation of the new subvariant of Corona JN.1 in Kerala. Actually, it was confirmed in a 79-year-old woman from Kerala. The woman’s RT-PCR test result came on 18 November. In which there were mild symptoms of influenza like disease and she has recovered from Covid-19. Earlier, JN.1 sub-variant was also detected in a person from Tamil Nadu who returned from Singapore. The man was a resident of Tiruchirappalli district of Tamil Nadu and had traveled to Singapore on October 25.
So far, 4 crore 50 lakh 4 thousand 816 cases of Corona have been reported in the country. At the same time, after the death of 5 more patients, the death toll has increased to 5 lakh 33 thousand 316. The number of people recovering from the disease has increased to 4 crore 44 lakh 69 thousand 799. According to the website of the Health Ministry, the country’s recovery rate is 98.81 percent while the death rate is 1.19 percent. According to the ministry’s website, 220.67 crore doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been given so far in the country.
What do experts say on this variant?
Giving information about this new variant, Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG) Chief Dr NK Arora told news agency ANI, ‘This is a sub-variant of BA.2.86. We have some cases of JN.1. He said, ‘India is keeping a watch and that is why no hospitalization or serious illness has been reported so far.’
How different is this JN.1 from the earlier variants?
According to Rajeev Jayadevan, co-chair of the National Indian Medical Association Covid Task Force, ‘JN.1 is a severely immunocompromised and rapidly spreading variant, which is markedly different from XBB and all previous variants of this virus. Is. It is capable of infecting people who have had Covid infection before and those who have been vaccinated
