JN.1 variant not confirmed so far in detected case: GMC Jammu Principal

Jammu, Dec 29: Government Medical College (GMC) Jammu Principal Dr Ashutosh Gupta stated that no fresh COVID 19 case was detected on Friday while contact tracing of the case detected a day earlier was going on.

Asserting that there was no need to go panicky following detection of new case of COVID 19 because so far it was not confirmed to be related to new variant JN.1.

“Sample has been sent for genomic sequencing. It will take 3-4 weeks for the report to be out. In any case, there is nothing unusual in detection of a COVID 19 case as such cases will continue to figure as it (COVID) has not gone anywhere. It was a pandemic. It is still with us as an endemic. We have to live with it. It was simply that a (COVID 19) case was detected after a long time and that happened because testing was intensified following an advisory by the Union Health Ministry. We are fully equipped to deal with any situation. Only need is to strictly follow COVID Appropriate Behaviour (CAB),” Dr Ashutosh said, while speaking to Greater Kashmir.

With regard to the COVID case detected on Thursday in Jammu, GMC Principal reiterated that the patient, with mild symptoms, was kept in isolation. He had acquired the virus from a person. who had come from outside, Dr Ashutosh said.

“In any case, we need to remember that the new variant (JN.1) is not lethal. The way it has behaved so far, it has come across as a very infectious sub-variant yet with low mortality or fatality rate. Thus, we have to mainly focus on preventive and supportive care to be followed by curative measures,” he reminded.

On Thursday, he (Dr Ashutosh) reviewed the COVID 19 RTPCR testing in the laboratory in the Department of Microbiology. He had also inspected the ongoing works in the BSL3 lab complex and directed the engineers to complete the remaining jobs at the earliest.

The Government Medical College Hospital (GMCH) and Shri Maharaja Gulab Singh (SMGS) Hospital have already started COVID 19 sample collection kiosks where RAT testing is being performed and RT-PCR samples are being collected.

Besides an SOP for diagnosis and management of Influenza-like Illness (ILI) and Severe Acute Respiratory Illness (SARI) cases at Government Medical College Hospital and Associated Hospitals (GMCH & AH), Jammu was also released last week.