After reporting 34 cases of JN.1 on December 25 and 165 cases on January 1, an additional 175 people from Karnataka are found to be infected with the highly transmissible new sub-variant of Omicron. With this, the total JN.1 cases in the State has now touched 374.
This follows whole genome sequencing (WGS) of 828 samples at the National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune, and the NCBS in Bengaluru. Of the 443 results of samples that have been received till Friday, 84% (374) are infected with JN.1, 7% (30) are found to be positive for XBB and the remaining are other variants.
While the district-wise break up of the JN.1 cases was not made available, officials said over 60% are from Bengaluru. Officials said the reports are of samples that were sent a fortnight ago.
163 new cases
On Friday, 163 new cases and 162 recoveries were reported, reducing the number of active cases to 994. The total number of deaths reported since December 15 has touched 28.
Of the 163 cases, as many as 50 are from Bengaluru. The city now has 540 active cases. Of the 994 active patients, 60 are being treated in hospitals. While 14 are being treated in ICUs, four are on ventilator support.
As many as 6,396 tests were conducted in the last 24 hours of which 5,685 were RT-PCR tests. With this, the day’s test positivity rate reduced to 2.54%.
