The Health department was not aware of the two cases of JN.1 variant of COVID-19 reported in the State. The cases, documented in November, went unnoticed by the department as they solely relied on the data released from December onwards.
According to the Indian SARS-COV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG), two cases of the JN.1 variant were identified in Telangana on November 21. Scientific Committee convener of IMA Telangana State Dr. Kiran Madala noted that with these recorded cases, Telangana became the fourth State in the country to record the JN.1 variant.
A Health department official told The Hindu that their scrutiny has been confined to December data, leading to a failure in identifying the JN.1 cases. “We will investigate and assess the status of the two reported cases,” he said.
Contradicting the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare’s claim of 109 JN.1 variant cases in the country, INSACOG data, as of Wednesday evening, indicates only 103 cases across nine states. Among these, Gujarat leads with 34 cases, followed by Kerala with 24, Goa with 18, Karnataka with eight, Maharashtra with seven, Rajasthan with five, Tamil Nadu with four, Telangana with two, and Delhi with one case.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) termed the JN.1 variant as a Variant of Interest on November 21 due to its rapid spread. However, WHO’s overall risk evaluation categorises the variant as ‘low’.
