New COVID strain JN.1 is spreading fast. How worried should we be?
Al Jazeera
The new variant has spread across 41 countries as the WHO categorises it as a ‘variant of interest’.
A new strain of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that caused the coronavirus pandemic four years ago, has been detected in dozens of countries.
The World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday categorised the JN.1 as a “variant of interest”. After first being spotted in the United States in September, the variant has spread across 41 countries.
The new variant is now being closely monitored by public health agencies across the world due to its increased transmission rate.
Here’s what there is to know about the strain and its current risk.
The new coronavirus strain, JN.1, has arisen from the most recent variant before it, named BA 2.86. The latter is itself part of the lineage of the “Omicron” variant – a more severe strain of COVID-19 that peaked last year.
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