NIH issued advisory for the Prevention and Control of JN.1 Sub-variant of COVID-19 virus
JN.1 is classified as Variant of Interest (VOI) and fundamentally an offshoot of BA.2.86 sub-variant omicron variant
COVID-19 virus, very first reported in August, 2023 by US-CDC. However, in recent weeks, JN.1 has been reported in many countries, and its prevalence is rapidly increasing globally. This rapid growth is observed across the three WHO regions with consistent sharing of SARS-CoV-2 sequences, i.e. the region of the Americas, the Western Pacific and the European regions, with the largest increase seen in Western Pacific from 1.1% in epidemiological week 44 to 65.6% in epidemiological week 48.
The objective of this advisory is to alert and facilitate the health authorities and other stakeholders for ensuring timely preventive and control measures encompassing preparedness to deal with increased workload expected in the outpatient and in-patient departments during next few weeks.
Editor: Raja Kamran