India has so far reported 21 cases of the new coronavirus variant JN.1 from across the country, the government think tank NITI Aayog member (Health) VK Paul said today.
Goa has reported 19 cases of the JN.1 variant, and Maharashtra and Kerala one each, sources said. Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya today reviewed the COVID-19 situation and preparedness of public health systems in view of rising Covid cases in some parts of the country.
“It is important to be on alert and be prepared against new and emerging strains of the coronavirus,” Mr Mandaviya said, according to a statement by the Health and Family Welfare Ministry today.
He asked for smooth coordination between the Centre and the states to ensure efficient management of Covid. “Let us undertake mock drills once every three months at both the central and state levels and share best practices,” the Health Minister said.
The Health Minister reminded the states that Covid is not over yet, so it is essential for the states to monitor emerging evidences of Covid cases, symptoms, and case severity to plan appropriate public health response.
Health Ministry secretary Sudhansh Pant in a presentation on the global and domestic Covid situation said cases in India are significantly less compared to the global numbers. But in the past two weeks, there has been a steep rise in active cases from 115 on December 6 to 614 today.
Of this, 92.8 per cent of the cases are home-isolation, indicating mild illness, and no increase in hospitalisation rates have been seen due to Covid, Mr Pant said during the presentation. The cases that are hospitalised are due to other medical conditions, while Covid is an incidental finding, the Health Secretary said, adding a rise in daily positivity rate has been observed in Kerala, Maharashtra, Jharkhand, and Karnataka. Positivity rate is the number of confirmed cases per 100 tests.
Mr Pant said the JN.1 variant is under intense scientific scrutiny but not a cause of immediate concern. No clustering of cases due to the JN.1 variant has been observed in India. All the cases were found to be mild, and the patients recovered without any complications.