Rajasthan Chief Minister Bhajan Lal Sharma held a review meeting with health department officials on Monday. The meeting comes against the backdrop of several parts of the country reporting an increase in COVID cases.
"On average, 400-500 samples are being tested every day in Delhi, and on average, 5-7 positive cases are coming; that is, the positivity is about one percent. As of today, a total of four Corona patients are in hospitals in Delhi. There is no situation of panic," said Bhardwaj.
The sources said of the total cases of the JN.1 variant, 34 are from Goa, nine from Maharashtra, eight from Karnataka, six from Kerala, four from Tamil Nadu and two from Telangana
As COVID cases show an upward trend in multiple states, reaching 3742 active patients on Sunday, concerns mount with the highest reported cases in Kerala, where a new variant, JN.1, has emerged.
The World Health Organization has urged the countries in the Southeast Asia Region to strengthen surveillance and asked people to take protective measures in view of rising cases of respiratory diseases including influenza and Covid sub-variant JN.1.
A 62-year-old woman was isolated at Mahama Gandhi Memorial Hospital in Telangana after incidentally developing COVID-19 symptoms, JN.1 variant to be confirmed after genome sequencing, said Superintendent, MGM Hospital V Chandrashekar on Saturday.
Amid a surge in COVID cases in India and the detection of a subvariant JN.1, India SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG) chief Dr NK Arora said that no additional dose of vaccine is required against the subvariant at the present stage.
Due to its rapidly increasing spread, WHO is classifying the variant JN.1 as a separate variant of interest (VOI) from the parent lineage BA.2.86. It was previously classified as VOI as part of BA.2.86 sublineages.
The committee includes Health Minister Dinesh Gundu Rao, cabinet ministers Sharan Prakash Patil, HC Mahadevappa and MC Sudhakar. Meanwhile, Karnataka's neighbouring states are also on high alert after the recent surge in COVID cases