COVID-19: Kerala Minister Says Not To Worry After Subvariant JN.1 Detected, 58 Active Cases In K'taka

Kerala Health Minister Veena George has asked people to not worry but urged them to stay alert after the COVID-19 Subvariant JN.1 was detected in the state.

Kerala Health Minister Veena George has said the state is monitoring the situation after a woman was found infected with COVID-19 sub-strain JN.1. She said the strain was detected in Indians at Singapore airport two or three months back. The minister assured people to not worry and said the state has a good health system. However, she advised people, especially those with comorbidities, to be alert.

"No need of any worry. That is a sub-variant (COVID-19 sub-strain JN.1). Now it is detected. Two or three months back it was detected in Indians when they were tested at Singapore airport. It is existing in other parts of India," she said, quoted ANI.

"Kerala has detected it. As Kerala's health system is so good, we could detect it through genomic sequencing. No need to worry. We are keenly monitoring the situation. But we should be alert. People with comorbidities should be taken care of," she added.

According to PTI, the Union ministry is in regular touch with the Kerala health department and monitoring various entry points to the state.

Meanwhile, Karnataka Health Minister Dinesh Gundu Rao also assured the people of the state to not worry. Giving an update on the Covid cases in the state, he said: "As per our records, we have about 58 active cases, 11 are hospitalized and the remaining are at home. So far in the last three months, we have had one death due to COVID-19 but the person who died had other co-morbidities also. We are already taking precautionary measures. We have informed all the hospitals and Health centres to increase testing for those who come with symptoms of cough and flu and other Covid-like symptoms..."

A senior official from the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said on Saturday a case of COVID-19 sub-variant JN. 1 was detected in Kerala as part of an ongoing routine surveillance activity of the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG). The case was detected in an RT-PCR positive sample from Karakulam in the Thiruvananthapuram district on December 8.

Dr Rajiv Bahl, Director General of the ICMR, said the sample had tested RT-PCR positive on November 18, adding that the 79-year-old woman had mild symptoms of Influenza Like Illness (ILI) and has since recovered from Covid.

"There has been an increasing trend of COVID-19 cases from the state of Kerala since the last few weeks. This has been attributed to an increase in the number of samples from ILI cases being referred for testing," Bahl said, quoted PTI.

Union Health Minister is conducting a mock drill at all health facilities in the states to assess their public-health and hospital-preparedness measures. The activity began on Dec 13 and is being carried out under the overall supervision of the district collectors and is likely to be completed by December 18, the ICMR official said, as quoted by PTI.