Experts believe people in China will continue to experience various respiratory pathogens alternating or co-circulating in the winter and the coming spring, with influenza viruses still dominating in the short term, according to Global Times report. According to Wang Dayan, director of the China National Influenza Center, National Institute for Viral Disease Control and Prevention, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (China CDC), due to continuous importation of the JN.1 variant strain, a gradual downward trend in domestic influenza, and a decline in population immunity, the COVID-19 epidemic might rebound in January, with the JN.1 variant highly likely to develop into the dominant variant in China.
In Pune, samples are sent from the network of private laboratories, apart from municipal and state health authorities. Samples from other places are also sent to Pune's labs and further for genome sequencing, which has helped identify as many as 150 JN.1 variant cases in Pune.
As the number of COVID cases due to the JN.1 variant keeps increasing, two new symptoms related to the COVID-19 infection have come to the fore. These symptoms have been identified by the UK s Office for National Statistics (UK ONS). COVID cases across the globe are increasing at a faster pace. In India, more than 4,000 active COVID cases have been detected. The first case related to the JN.1 variant was found in the country on December 8 in Kerala.