With a sharp rise in the number of Covid-19 patients caused by JN.1, a sub-variant of novel coronavirus, in the country experts have advised people above 60 years with comorbidities must wear masks to prevent the virus that had ravaged the world during 2020 and 2021. The Karnataka government has already made it mandatory for people above 60 to wear masks. West Bengal has recorded around eight Covid-19 positive cases including a sixmonth old baby so far during the past couple of days.

A top official of the health department at Swasthya Bhaban said that no patient infected with JN.1 variant has been reported so far in West Bengal. Swab samples of several Covid-19 positive cases have been sent by the health department to the National Institute of Biomedical Genomics (NIBMG) for JN.1 infection confirmatory tests.

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The samples are awaiting results because it takes three to four days to get test reports for each swab sample. “There is no evidence of hospitalizations of patients infected with the JN.1 variant so far in the country though the new strain spreads fast and is highly infective. People above 60 years with co-morbidities must use masks to prevent the disease,” Prof Soumitra Das of Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, and a chair of the advisory board of the Indian SARS 1Covid-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG), formed jointly by the Union health ministry and department of bio-technology, told The Statesman from Bengaluru on Saturday.

“There is no need to panic as per the health ministry’s guidelines. With advice of doctors, patients showing influenza-like infection or severe acute respiratory infection should undergo RT-PCR tests for Covid-19 confirmatory investigation,” Prof Das, former director of NIBMG, said. “Elderly people with comorbidities like cardiovascular disease, diabetes, kidney ailments etc are vulnerable to get JN.1 infections.

They should maintain Covid-19 appropriate guidelines like the use of masks, hand sanitisers and social distancing,” said Prof Arindam Maitra, associate director of NIBMG. “West Bengal government has sent swab samples of several positive cases to our for genome sequencing. The samples are awaiting test results. We have requested the state government to give us more samples so that we can conduct JN.1 confirmation tests as much as possible,” said Prof Maitra.