Amid rising cases of JN.1Covid variant, Delhi Health Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj on Wednesday said adequate steps like availability of oxygen cylinders, isolation wards and ventilator beds are being taken to tide over any exigency.
He, however, said JN.1 is a variant of Omicron and is mild in nature despite being infectious. He said 90 per cent of the patients are being treated and recovering under home isolation, while very few required oxygen support and ventilators.
The minister further said the deaths reported in this regard were due to co- morbidities and asked people to remain safe and vigilant.
He also urged people not to panic or expose themselves to the infection.
Meanwhile, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya directed all states to take preventive measures with regard to the surge of COVID-19 cases. He virtually chaired a high-level review meeting in the national capital with health ministers of states/UTs to discuss their readiness to combat the disease.
Interacting with media after the meeting, NITI Aayog member(Health) V K Paul said there are 2,300 active cases of COVID-19 at present. He said 16 deaths have also been reported in the country in the last two weeks.
Meanwhile, on Monday, the Centre had issued an advisory in view of the recent upsurge in COVID-19 cases and detection of the first case of JN.1 variant in the country.
The government had asked the states/UTs to maintain a constant vigil on the situation besides ensuring adequate testing, including higher number of RT-PCR tests, and send positive samples for genome sequencing to Indian SARS COV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG) laboratories.