Corona infection has been seen increasing globally in the last few months. According to health experts, the JN.1 sub-variant arising from a mutation in Omicron's BA.2.86 variant is believed to be the main cause of this wave. Due to this, not only has crowding in hospitals increased in large numbers in countries like America and Singapore, but cases of death have also increased.

An increase in cases of infection has also been recorded in India. Recent reports show that there has been some improvement in the figures of daily infections but the threat of new variants continues in the country.

According to information shared by the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Consortium on Genomics (INSACOG) on Tuesday (January 23), there are a total of 1,640 cases of COVID-19 sub-variant JN.1 in the country so far. A maximum of 477 cases of this new variant have been reported in Maharashtra, 219 in Andhra Pradesh, 156 in Kerala, and 127 in Gujarat. If we look at the records of the last month, it shows that along with the infection, the death toll in the country has also increased rapidly.

Cases of infection and death increased
According to the World Health Organization (WHO)'s COVID-19 epidemiological update released this month, India has seen an 843% increase in COVID-19 cases and a 682% increase in deaths in the last month.

According to the report, in a span of 28 days from December 11, 2023, to January 7, 2024, India recorded more than 15,000 new cases. This is significantly higher than the previous reporting period. The number of reported deaths increased by 682% over 28 days from December 2023 to January 2024, with 86 deaths during this period.

Death cases due to Corona in the country
The report shows that cases of death due to corona have increased in the country, however, the death rate remains less than one death per 100,000 people. The report highlighted that five out of 11 countries in the Southeast Asia region, including India, have reported a significant increase in new cases.

Most of the cases of death have been seen in people who already had comorbidities or whose immunity was very weak due to chronic diseases.

The new variant has spread to 71 countries
The JN.1 variant has so far been reported in 71 countries, according to the WHO report, emphasizing the importance of monitoring the variant. Talking to Amar Ujala, health experts say, the JN.1 variant has been considered highly infectious since the beginning. Due to the high infection rate, the risk also increased in people with weak immunity, due to which some serious cases of the disease were also reported.

Take precautions to prevent infection
Health experts say, if seen in the long term, it is found that due to vaccination and natural infection, most people have immunity, which helps in keeping them safe from the risk of infection or serious disease. The new variant has been seen increasing rapidly in many countries, in such a situation, everyone needs to be constantly alert about infection prevention measures.

The risk of corona can be reduced by paying attention to masks, social distancing, and hand hygiene.

(PC: iStOCK)