After a surge in the cases of the new COVID subvariant JN.1, doctors from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) have advised people to not panic but rather remain alert and vigilant.
“People are getting infected by the new sub-variant of COVID-JN.1 in many states of the country. The symptoms of the patients are mild. Therefore, there is no need to panic but the need to remain alert,” doctor Neeraj Nischal said.
Doctor Nischal, who is an Additional Professor in the Department of Medicine at AIIMS Delhi, said, “We have been saying this type of ripple will keep on happening. Even during the first and second waves, we predicted that this virus would mutate further and the stage would come where it would become more infectious but at the same time cause less mortality or morbidity.”
“So this is, you can say, a fight between the viruses in human beings who are also trying to survive. People are becoming infected but at the same time, it’s not causing the problem that its predecessors, like the delta variant, caused,” said the doctor.
“The important thing is that we are more aware of this virus and that we know how to deal with it. So if you see cases increasing, that shows that our surveillance system is in place, and we can pick up any new surge or any new variant that is coming into our society. So this should not be a cause for panic. This only shows how well we are prepared now and I think we should be able to handle this in a good way,” he added.
Doctor Neeraj Nischal further said, “From the data that is emerging, the new subvariant is not very different from omicron. We are looking into whether the virus is causing similar types of symptoms like coughing, cold, sneezing, fever, and body aches.”