Former AIIMS director and senior pulmonologist Dr. Randeep Guleria said on Saturday that the new JN. 1 subvariant of Covid-19 is more transmissible but causes severe infections or hospitalizations.
He said the variant is becoming dominant.
“It’s more transmissible, it spreads faster and it adapts to a dominant variant. This causes more infections, but knowledge also suggests that it doesn’t cause serious infections or hospitalizations. Most symptoms are basically found in the upper respiratory tract, such as fever. , cough, cold, sore throat, runny nose and pains in the frame,” Dr. Guleria was quoted as saying through ANI.
The JN. 1 variant, a descendant of the Omicron virus, has been classified as a “variant of interest” by the World Health Organization (WHO). However, the overall fitness framework posed by the overall threat posed by JN. 1 remains unsubstantiated. on the existing evidence.
According to Dr. N. K. Arora, director of the SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium of India (INSACOG), there is currently no need to administer an additional dose of the anti-JN. 1 vaccine.
“I would say prevention is mandatory for everyone over the age of 60, who are more likely to have comorbidities, and for those taking medications that suppress our immunity, such as cancer patients. If you have not taken precautions so far, then you are requested to take precautions; otherwise, no additional dose is needed,” Dr. Guleria was quoted as saying.
India has so far reported as many as 22 cases of the new Covid variant, spreading concern across the country. The first case was discovered in a 79-year-old woman in Kerala. Of the total cases, 19 were detected in Goa, one in Kerala and one in Maharashtra each, while the main points of one case are yet to be revealed.
Meanwhile, on Saturday, India reported a total of 752 cases in 24 hours, the number of cases in a single day increased since May 21. The number of active cases stood at 3,420.