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US reports Covid hospitalisation surge for 9th straight week as JN.1 variant sweeps world
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported over 35,800 hospital admissions related to COVID-19 last week.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported over 35,800 hospital admissions related to COVID-19 last week, marking the ninth straight week of increases.
Respiratory virus activity continues to remain high as people with symptoms of cough and fever were seen visiting health care providers in 35 states in addition to New York City and the District of Columbia.
The week-over-week surge has mostly leveled off after the winter holidays, when people usually take part in social gatherings and travel coinciding with higher dissemination of coronavirus. However, hospital admissions in the United States are at a level not seen since the winter of last year.
“Despite test positivity (percentage of tests conducted that were positive), emergency department visits, and hospitalisations remaining elevated nationally, the rates have stabilized, or in some instances decreased, after multiple weeks of continual increase,” the CDC stated in an update on Friday.
The United States has "very high" COVID-19 virus levels, according to wastewater surveillance data.
The COVID-19 virus is killing over 1,600 Americans every week, according to preliminary CDC statistics.
JN.1, an omicron subvariant that is the predominant strain circulating in the nation, is mainly responsible for the present COVID-19 outbreak in the US. Though it is the variant that is spreading the fastest in the nation, according to the CDC, "there is no evidence that JN.1 presents an increased risk to public health relative to other currently circulating variants."
What is JN.1 COVID variant and how dangerous it is?
The Omicron subvariant at present accounts for 44 percent of Covid cases in the US. Its rate of transmission has doubled only in two weeks, the CDC's last month data showed.
The World Health Organization (WHO) classified JN.1 as a "variant of interest.” It has led to hospitalisations across the country, and has proved fatal in some cases.
Reportedly, as per recent evidence, the strain does not possess a greater threat to public health than other variants that are circulating.
This variant possesses over three dozen mutations in its spike protein in comparison with XBB.1.5, the variant that dominated most of this year. COVID vaccines, however, will increase protection against JN.1 just like it does for the other variants, it is believed.
Across all variants, COVID symptoms are mostly similar. They include fever or chills, cough, shortness of breath or difficulty breathing, fatigue, muscle or body aches, headache, new loss of taste or smell, sore throat, congestion or runny nose, nausea or vomiting, and Diarrhoea.
