India records 656 new covid-19 cases
- The ministry reported a surge in daily active caseloads across states, including Telangana, Gujarat, Delhi and others
The Union Health Ministry reported a single-day increase of 656 new covid-19 cases in India. The active caseload has risen from 3,420 to 3,742, the ministry said on Sunday. In the last 24 hours, Kerala reported one death, bringing the national fatality toll to 533,333, with a case fatality rate of 1.18%.
Kerala, where the covid sub-variant JN.1 was initially discovered, reported highest number of active cases in a single day (126). The ministry reported a surge in daily active caseloads across states, including Telangana (11), Gujarat (10), Delhi (16), Maharashtra (35), Karnataka (96), and Gujarat (11).
According to Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, the symptoms are very similar to seasonal influenza making it difficult for one to differentiate JN.1 from other sub-variants of Omicron. such as fever, nasal discharge and cough, and occasional diarrhoea with severe body ache. However, usually it takes 2-5 days to recover.
“JN.1 has higher potential to spread faster compared to BA.2.86 and that is because of that one additional protein spike. However, there won’t be any severity as the Delta variant had caused,” Dr Lalit Kant, former ICRM scientist, said.
Dr. NK Arora, head of India SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium, said that no additional dose of vaccine would be required for the subvariant at this time, despite a rise in cases. JN.1 has an extra spike protein, making it more transmissible compared to BA.2.86 that has been existing in India for quite some time.
A sub-variant of the Omicron strain of SARS-CoV-2, JN.1 is highly mutated strain derived from the BA.2.86 variant, nicknamed Pirola. The BA.2.86 lineage was first seen in August in India and carries over 30 mutations in spike protein.
JN.1 and BA.2.86 exhibit similar characteristics, differing in just one feature.
Earlier this year in May, the WHO had declared Covid19 as no longer a global health emergency. About the variant JN.1, the WHO recently termed is as the matter of “variant of interest” given its rapidly increasing spread but said it poses a “low” global public threat.
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First Published:24 Dec 2023, 10:46 PM IST
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