GURGAON: Amid a rise in cases of Covid-19 sub-variant JN.1 in the country, Haryana has increased daily testing to 500 now from 100 in the first week of December. So far this month, the state has reported 14 cases, all in Gurgaon. The health department has not yet figured out if JN.1 caused them.
“We have sent the samples for genome sequencing but have not got any response yet.We have increased testing. There is a slight rise in cases, but we are yet to confirm if that is because of the JN.1 sub-variant. There is no need to panic. The patients have been recovering in home isolation and did not require hospital admission,” said Dr Virender Yadav, chief medical officer of Gurgaon.
On Monday, Haryana carried out 510 tests and detected two new cases. The state currently has eight Covid patients, all recovering at their homes in Gurgaon. “The new patients have travel histories to foreign countries, and some came in contact with positive cases. It is advisable to wear masks in public places, and people having symptoms need to isolate and consult doctors,” said the CMO.
Dr Rajiv Dang, senior director and head of the internal medicine department at Max Hospital in Gurgaon, said, “The JN.1 sub-variant has emerged as a derivative of the widely-circulating Omicron variant. Sars-CoV-2, the virus responsible for causing Covid-19, undergoes a continuous series of mutations, giving rise to variants such as the Delta variant in 2021, which had been notably more fatal. In contrast, the Omicron variant, identified in 2022, is highly infectious but tends to cause milder symptoms. The emergence of new variants over time and the spread of the virus do not necessarily imply increased danger. Although, we need much more research on this.”
“We have sent the samples for genome sequencing but have not got any response yet.We have increased testing. There is a slight rise in cases, but we are yet to confirm if that is because of the JN.1 sub-variant. There is no need to panic. The patients have been recovering in home isolation and did not require hospital admission,” said Dr Virender Yadav, chief medical officer of Gurgaon.
On Monday, Haryana carried out 510 tests and detected two new cases. The state currently has eight Covid patients, all recovering at their homes in Gurgaon. “The new patients have travel histories to foreign countries, and some came in contact with positive cases. It is advisable to wear masks in public places, and people having symptoms need to isolate and consult doctors,” said the CMO.
Dr Rajiv Dang, senior director and head of the internal medicine department at Max Hospital in Gurgaon, said, “The JN.1 sub-variant has emerged as a derivative of the widely-circulating Omicron variant. Sars-CoV-2, the virus responsible for causing Covid-19, undergoes a continuous series of mutations, giving rise to variants such as the Delta variant in 2021, which had been notably more fatal. In contrast, the Omicron variant, identified in 2022, is highly infectious but tends to cause milder symptoms. The emergence of new variants over time and the spread of the virus do not necessarily imply increased danger. Although, we need much more research on this.”