On December 8, Kerala recorded a case confirming the detection of the COVID-19 subvariant JN.1, as officially announced by sources on Saturday.
The sample was collected from a 79-year-old woman on November 18th, and the RT-PCR test confirmed infection.
The woman exhibited mild symptoms resembling influenza-like illnesses (ILI) and has successfully recovered from COVID-19.
Currently, over 90% of COVID-19 cases in the country are not severe, with infected individuals opting for home isolation. Earlier, a case of the JN.1 variant was detected in a traveller from India in Singapore.
The individual, a resident of Tiruchirappalli district in Tamil Nadu, had undertaken the journey to Singapore on October 25th.
The JN.1 variant, a subvariant of COVID-19, was initially identified in Luxembourg and is associated with the Prolonged form (B.A.2.86) in several countries.
It is worth mentioning that COVID-19 cases are steadily increasing in Singapore. In light of this, the country's Ministry of Health has urged people to wear masks in crowded places.
On Friday, the ministry stated that COVID-19 cases rose to 56,043 by December 9, compared to 32,035 the previous week, marking a 75% increase in infections.
The majority of these cases are associated with the JN.1 variant, a sublineage of the B.A.2.86 strain.
