Delhi Reports First Case Of COVID-19 Sub-Variant JN.1

Delhi has reported its first case of COVID-19 sub-variant JN.1, Health Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj said on Wednesday and appealed to people not to panic. According to an official, three samples were sent for genome sequencing, and one of them tested positive for the JN.1 variant while the remaining two were Omicron.

While confirming the first case of the JN.1 variant in Delhi, Bharadwaj said, "JN.1 is a sub-variant of Omicron and a mild infection. This is the one spreading in south India. There is no need to panic. It causes mild sickness."

Another official, while giving more details of the first JN.1 case, said the patient was a 52-year-old woman, who was admitted to a hospital three to four weeks ago. "She was admitted for mild symptoms. She had a cough and an upper respiratory infection. She did not require oxygen support and there was no involvement of lungs. Initially, we thought that she had flu but she tested positive for Covid. She was discharged within a few days," the second official told PTI.

Delhi has around 35 active cases with nine fresh infections being reported on Wednesday, the official told PTI, while adding that a 28-year-old man, who had comorbidities, died though Covid was not the primary reason. "The man was not from Delhi and was referred to a private hospital recently. He had multiple comorbidities and the Covid finding was incidental. The sample of the man has been sent for genome sequencing and a report is awaited," the official told PTI. The official said that the deceased was suffering from multi-system inflammatory syndrome and was "highly comorbid".

"The Covid finding was incidental and mostly it has been seen that patients are referred to Delhi when they are in the last stage of a disease," he added. Forty more cases of the COVID-19 sub-variant JN.1 were recorded, with the tally of cases of the new variant across the country till December 26 rising to 109, official sources said earlier on Wednesday.

Thirty-six cases were detected from Gujarat, 34 from Karnataka, 14 from Goa, nine from Maharashtra, six from Kerala, four each from Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu, and two from Telangana, they said. Most of the patients are currently in home isolation, they added. India recorded 529 fresh COVID-19 cases in a single day, while the country's active infection count stood at 4,093, the health ministry said on Wednesday.

Three new fatalities -- two from Karnataka and one from Gujarat -- were reported in 24 hours, according to the ministry's data updated at 8 am. The number of daily cases had dropped to double-digits till December 5, but infections have again gone up after the emergence of a new variant and cold weather conditions.