Covid news LIVE updates: ‘Need to be cautious, not panic’, says ex-WHO chief scientist on JN.1 variant
Covid news LIVE updates: Covid 19 cases in India have started increasing once again. Along with this, the threat of JN.1 sub-variant is also being seen with its first case reported in Kerala. JN.1 is a descendant of the “pirola” variant BA 2.86, which by itself is an Omicron subvariant. JN.1 has an additional mutation receptor binding domain (L455S) compared to BA 2.86. JN.1 has extensive resistance across receptor binding domain classes 1, 2, and 3 and shows higher immune evasion as compared with BA 2.86 and other resistant strains. The World Health Organization has classified JN.1 as a variant of interest. IMA COVID Task Force Dr Rajeev Jayadevan on Thursday said that the new strain can be problematic for people of old age and those with multiple comorbidities.
Speaking of Covid cases in India, India on Thursday recorded 594 fresh COVID-19 infections while the number of active cases increased to 2,669 from 2,311 the previous day. The death toll climbed to 5,33,327 with six more people — three from Kerala, two from Karnataka and one from Punjab — succumbing to the viral disease.
Catch all the LIVE updates on Covid and the sub-variant JN.1 here
Covid LIVE updates: ‘Need to be cautious, not panic’: Dr Soumya Swaminathan on new Covid variant scare
Amid the rising new JN.1 Covid-19 variant scare, former World Health Organisation (WHO) chief scientist Dr Soumya Swaminathan asserted that there is no need to panic currently as it is a variant of interest and not of concern.
However, she urged people to be cautious by taking proper precautionary measures.
Speaking to ANI exclusively, Dr Soumya Swaminathan, former DG, of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said, “We need to be cautious, but we don’t need to worry because we don’t have any data to suggest that this variant JN.1 is more severe or it’s going to cause more pneumonia, more death.”
“I think what we need to do is try to take the normal preventive measures that we are all now familiar with. We were familiar with Omicron, so it’s the same family. So not much has changed, but 1 or 2 new mutations have come up. And that’s why I think WHO has said let’s keep a watch on it. It’s a variant of interest. It’s not a variant of concern,” said the doctor.
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