Holiday gatherings and the spread of the most prominent variant globally led to increased transmission of COVID-19 last month, says UN health agency chief.
This emergence of varied symptoms coincides with a global surge in Covid-19 infections, with the WHO reporting a 52% increase in new cases over the past month.
On Wednesday, the New York City Health Commissioner Dr. Ashwin Vasan told WABC TV that mask mandates had resumed at all 11 of the city s public hospitals, 30 health centers, and five long-term care facilities.
“It seems that JN.1 Covid variant has replaced most other variants since December last year,” Dr Rajesh Karyakarte, Maharashtra genome sequencing coordinator, said.
Surprisingly, Mumbai has not recorded any JN.1 cases thus far. A Genome Sequencing report dated January 3, 2024, confirms the presence of the JN.1 variant in 78 new Covid-positive cases.