Covid’s new strain JN.1 not a cause for immediate concern: Centre

With the surge in covid cases and the emergence of a new strain JN.1, union health minister Mansukh Mandaviya chaired a meeting with the state health officials on Wednesday. 

Reiterating that covid-19 is not over yet, Mandaviya requested states to monitor emerging evidence of the new sub-variant strain, its symptoms, and case severity to plan an appropriate public health response. 

On the new JN.1 strain, the health ministry noted in the statement that the variant is currently under intense scientific scrutiny but is not a cause for immediate concern. "No clustering of cases has been observed in India due to JN.1, and all the cases were found to be mild, and all of them have recovered without any complications," it stated.

The World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday classified the JN.1 coronavirus strain as a "variant of interest" and said current evidence shows the risk to public health of the strain is low.

Sudhansh Pant, secretary, union health ministry, said while active covid cases in India are significantly less compared to the global scenario, in the last two weeks there has been a steep rise in active cases from 115 on 6 December 2023 to 614 on 20 December.

It was also noted that 92.8% of the cases are home isolated, indicating a mild illness. "No increase in hospitalization rates has been witnessed due to covid-19, the cases that are hospitalized are due to other medical conditions; covid-19 is an incidental finding. A rise in the daily positivity rate has been observed in a few states like Kerala, Maharashtra, Jharkhand, and Karnataka," the ministry said in a statement.

The ministry noted that there has been an increase in cases of coronavirus in some countries like China, Brazil, Germany, and the US. Considering this, the union health minister said the states should be prepared and remain alert against new and emerging strains.

As per the statement, Mandaviya stressed the need for collective efforts between the Centre and the states. He directed strengthening of the surveillance system for whole genome sequencing of positive case samples to track the variants through the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG) to ensure timely detection of newer variants circulating in the country.

"States and UTs have been requested to ramp up testing and refer a large number of samples of covid-19 positive cases and pneumonia-like illnesses to INSACOG Genome Sequencing Laboratories (IGSLs) on a daily basis for sequencing and to track new variants, if any. The union health minister urged all the states to remain alert, increase surveillance, and ensure adequate stock of medicines, oxygen cylinders and concentrators, ventilators, and vaccines," the statement said.

In the meeting, Mandaviya also asked officials to undertake mock drills every three months at both the central and state levels to assess the functionality of PSA plants, oxygen concentrators, cylinders, and ventilators. 

He also urged states to create awareness about respiratory hygiene, ensure the dissemination of factually correct information, and counter fake news to mitigate panic.

Present in the meeting was NITI Aayog member V.K. Paul, who reiterated the need for a whole-of-government approach to tackle the challenge posed by the surge in covid cases and the emergence of a new variant. He said that the scientific community in India is closely investigating the new variant, but stressed the need for states to ramp up testing and strengthen their surveillance systems.

Rajiv Bahl, secretary, department of health research, and DG, ICMR, said ICMR is currently working on genome sequencing of the new JN.1 variant. He urged states to monitor the scenario and increase RT-PCR tests, but noted that there is no cause for panic.