The new COVID-19 variant that scientists call JN. 1 now accounts for about 44. 1% of COVID-19 cases nationwide, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated Friday, marking a week of sharp increases in the fast-spreading variant. all over the world. WE.
The increase is more than two times larger than the 21.3% that the CDC now estimates the strain made up of infections for the week ending Dec. 9, after Thanksgiving.
Among regions with enough knowledge of testing labs to produce those most recent projections, the CDC estimates that the prevalence of JN. 1 is in the northeast region covering New Jersey and New York, where the strain accounts for 56. 9% of cases in those states. .
“The continued expansion of JN. 1 suggests that the variant is more transmissible or evades our immune formula to a greater extent than other circulating variants. It is too early to know whether, or to what extent, JN. 1 will lead to a buildup of infections or hospitalizations,” the CDC said Friday.
The new estimates come as other countries have also noted an immediate increase in the prevalence of JN. 1 in recent weeks, prompting the World Health Organization on Tuesday to raise the strain’s classification to “variant of interest,” its second-highest level.
So far, the government has not reported any other symptoms or any more severe symptoms of JN. 1 in previous strains.
Although officials so far say JN. 1’s public health threat is no greater than that of other recent strains, its unprecedented accumulation of mutations — the maximum inherited from JN. 1’s highly mutated parent, BA. 2. 86 — which first raised concerns over the summer — has kept the fitness government on its toes.
For months, BA.2.86 failed to gain much of a foothold around the world, despite being detected infecting people across dozens of countries after its discovery.
Additional mutations in JN. 1 appear to have altered the trajectory of this strain, raising considerations that the variant would possibly be more transmissible.
The first cases of JN. 1 in EE. UU. se reported through laboratories from samples in September. Since then, the percentage of JN. 1 in COVID-19 cases has accelerated to reach the fastest-growing percentage to date in the CDC’s biweekly report. Nowcast Estimates”.
Variants grouped under the BA. 2. 86 umbrella, which comes with JN. 1, have also accounted for the largest percentage of variants detected under the CDC’s airport testing program in foreign travelers who arrived in recent weeks.
The CDC’s own variant classifications have not been updated since September, when BA.2.86 was first deemed a “variant being monitored,” the lowest classification for potentially concerning variants.
In a break with the WHO, a CDC spokesperson indicated Friday afternoon that Biden’s leadership had so far not elevated JN. 1 to a standalone “variant of concern. ” Instead, the strain remains grouped with its parent BA. 2. 86 as a “variant of interest. ” monitored variant. “
“We will continue to monitor variants, add JN. 1, and provide updates as data changes,” CDC spokeswoman Jasmine Reed said in an email.
Data from early studies of the strain cited by the WHO in a risk evaluation this week also pointed to research suggesting JN.1 “displays a higher immune evasion” compared to its BA.2.86 parent, though not enough to prevent this season’s COVID-19 vaccines from being effective.
The updated COVID-19 vaccines this year targeted the XBB. 1. 5 strains that caused a wave of infections this year. Earlier this month, a WHO panel declined to request an update to the vaccine prescription, after reviewing initial knowledge to gauge the risk posed through JN. 1.
In a statement, a Novavax spokesperson said data from studies in mice and non-human primates showed that its injection “induced cross-neutralization opposite to JN. 1” that was “similar” to other strains of XBB.
A Pfizer spokesperson said the company expects to get information from testing its JN. 1 vaccine in the coming weeks. A Moderna spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
“I’m not sounding the alarm, we’re following the scenario very closely, but it’s conceivable that we’re seeing a leap forward rather than a slow erosion of vaccine protection. And if that happens, we’re going to have to act pretty quickly,” said Dr. Simpson. Jeanne Marrazzo, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, in an interview published Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Marrazzo said governments are intensively following “endpoints such as hospitalizations and deaths” as they step up their control of the new strain.
The WHO said early knowledge from Belgium and Singapore suggests that JN. 1 would possibly cause a threat of hospitalization or a reduction compared to other strains.
A WHO spokesperson declined to share further points about those initial findings with CBS News, saying the data was compared to experts at the U. N. agency ahead of publication in a journal.
So far, the CDC’s data has tracked rising COVID-19 emergency department visits and hospitalizations not outside of what has been seen during previous winter waves.
For now, those trends make up just a fraction of the record surge seen in the winter of 2021-2022, which put pressure on hospitals after the original Omicron variants swept the U. S. over the Christmas and New Year’s holidays that year. anus.