Egypt’s Ministry of Health and Population issued a statement on Monday assuring that it was following up on reports received from the World Health Organization, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and global health authorities regarding the discovery of a sub-strain of the Omicron variant dubbed “JN.1”
The statement included some details related to the new Omicron variant:
- The prevalence of “BA.2.86” Omicron lineage and its descendant strains, including “JN.1”, amounted to about 37 percent of the total samples reported worldwide – over half of them were of the new variant, according to the report issued by the WHO.
- The “JN.1” variant is able to spread widely and has the ability to infect those who were previously vaccinated with old vaccines against the emerging coronavirus, used prior to 2023.
- Initial doses of the coronavirus vaccine will likely help protect against this new sub-variant.
- Most cases of infection resulting from this mutant are mild, and there are no distinct clinical symptoms different from the previous symptoms of the Omicron mutant.
- The expected public health risks of this variant are still low.
- No cases infected with the new variant, as well as “BA.2.86”, have been discovered in Egypt so far.
