•The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said there is no evidence that JN.1 causes more severe disease
•However, the variant could increase the burden of respiratory infections in many countries
The Ministry of Health is conducting surveillance to monitor the impact of the JN.1 Covid strain in the country.
Health DG Patrick Amoth on Thursday however said the current data shows there is no cause for alarm at the moment.
The JN.1 was identified as a variant of interest in December last year.
According to expert review and analysis, the JN.1 variant is a descendant of BA.2.86 that has acquired the ability to transmit efficiently through an additional one or two mutations.
It has the immune evasion of its parent but has now mutated to transmit more efficiently.
"Covid has always been here with us since the first day that it was declared a pandemic. The new variant JN.1 is a subvariant of the omicron variant," Amoth said.
"We are doing passive surveillance from our surveillance sites the numbers so far are not anything to worry about," he noted.
The DG further noted that the country can handle any health emergency based on the capacity built during the Covid-19 pandemic and the lessons picked then.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said there is no evidence that JN.1 causes more severe disease.
However, the variant could increase the burden of respiratory infections in many countries.
The CDC further noted that COVID symptoms generally tend to be similar across variants, and symptoms and severity are usually more dependent on the person’s immunity than they are on the variant.
The WHO in December warned that the variant may cause an increase in Covid cases amid a surge of infections of other viral and bacterial infections, especially in countries entering the winter season.
"We believe we have built a health system that is resilient, robust and strong enough to be able to overcome any variant that Covid will throw at us. We are watching the space but nothing to worrying about for now," Amoth said.
As of December 16, 2023, there were 7344 JN.1 sequences submitted to the Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data (GISAID) from 41 countries.
The largest number of sequences was from France, the US, Singapore, Canada, the UK and Sweden.
The WHO, however, noted that the current population immunity globally will be effective against the variant, symptomatic and severe disease.