The centre issued advisory to states after the first case of the new coronavirus variant JN.1 was detected in a sample taken from a 79-year-old woman with mild symptoms from Karakulam in Thiruvananthapuram district of Kerala.
Earlier, a traveller from Tamil Nadu's Tiruchirapalli district has been detected with NJ 1 sub-variant in Singapore.
The JN.1 variant of Covid is considered to be a descendent of the Omicron sub-variant BA.2.86 or Pirola. It was first detected in the United States in September 2023 and China detected seven infections of the particular sub-variant on December 15, as per a Reuters report.
As per the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the BA.2.86 has a total of 20 mutations on the spike protein, which is a concern because viruses use spike proteins to latch onto the cells of the host.