Team Blitz India
THIRUVANATHAPURAM: The latest COVID-19 sub-variant JN. 1 was detected in Kerala on December 16 even as the state reported a spike in the number of cases infected by the coronavirus. A 79-year-old woman from Thiruvananthapuram had mild symptoms of Influenza- likeIllness (ILI) and has since recovered from Covid.
There are currently 1,324 people who are Covid positive in Kerala. This is the highest rate in the country. With 700 to 1,000 Covid tests conducted daily, the state also reports the highest testing rate in India. Meanwhile, two Covid-19 deaths were reported in the northern part of the state in the past two days.
The JN.1 variant was detected as part of an ongoing routine surveillance activity of the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG), a senior official from the Indian Council of Medical research (ICMR) said on December 16.
The case was detected in an RT-PCR positive sample from Karakulam in Thiruvananthapuram district of the southern state on December 8, Dr Rajiv Bahl, DirectorGeneral of the ICMR, said.
