Jn.1 Covid variant: Should we worry?

A 78-year-old Kerala woman on Saturday became the first person in India confirmed to be infected with JN.1 variant of Sars-CoV-2-the latest sub-variant of the virus that is behind a spike of infections in several countries across the world and has also prompted the World Health Organization to warn nations to continue with strong surveillance and sequence sharing.

- Rhythma Kaul, Jamie Mullick

While the patient in Kerala reported mild symptoms and has even recovered from her infection since, the Union health ministry, keeping in mind how this sub-variant has led to a resurgence in cases and become the dominant strain in several nations, asked states on Monday to step up Covid surveillance as a matter of abundant precaution.

Here, we take a look at why this strain has given many countries reason to step up their battle against Covid-19 again, with nations like Singapore deciding to reinforce a public masking mandate, but just as importantly, why it is not yet a reason for panic.

What is the JN.1 variant?

The JN.1 sub-variant a new sublineage of the BA.2.86 (also known as Pirola) by itself an off-shoot of the widely circulating Omicron variant which experts have warned appears to be more immune evasive, and has been identified in November by WHO scientists as a Variant of Interest.

According to data from GISAID, a global science initiative that provides access to genomic data of influenza viruses, more than 6,600 samples of BA.2.86 and its sub-lineages (including JN.1) have been sequenced in several countries.