{"id":48525,"date":"2024-01-16T09:33:01","date_gmt":"2024-01-16T09:33:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/health-ministry-fully-alert-as-15-cases-of-jn-1-covid-variant-confirmed-countrywide\/"},"modified":"2024-01-16T09:33:01","modified_gmt":"2024-01-16T09:33:01","slug":"health-ministry-fully-alert-as-15-cases-of-jn-1-covid-variant-confirmed-countrywide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/health-ministry-fully-alert-as-15-cases-of-jn-1-covid-variant-confirmed-countrywide\/","title":{"rendered":"Health ministry \u2018fully alert\u2019 as 15 cases of JN.1 Covid variant confirmed countrywide"},"content":{"rendered":"<div dir=\"auto\">\n<p>The National Institute of Health\u2019s (NIH) National Command and Operations Centre (NCOC) has confirmed 15 cases of Covid-19\u2019s JN.1 variant, the health ministry said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>Sajid Shah, the health ministry\u2019s spokesperson, quoted caretaker Health Minister Dr Nadeem Jan as saying that the situation was \u201cbeing monitored strictly, with border health services, national and provincial health authorities, and labs fully functional and alert\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Classified as a <a rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"link--external\" href=\"https:\/\/www.who.int\/news\/item\/13-12-2023-statement-on-the-antigen-composition-of-covid-19-vaccines\">variant of interest<\/a> (VOI) by the World Health Organisation (WHO), JN.1 is a sub-lineage of the Omicron variant and is more transmissible than other circulating variants. It has spread to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1805907\">over 40<\/a> countries.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media  sm:w-1\/2  w-full  media--right  media--embed  media--uneven\">\n<p>    <iframe class=\"nk-iframe\" onload=\"setInterval(()=&gt;{try{this.style.height=this.contentWindow.document.body.scrollHeight+'px';}catch{}}, 100)\" width=\"100%\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" style=\"height:400px;position:relative\" src=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/card\/1804070\" sandbox=\"allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-popups allow-modals allow-forms\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>The spokesperson further quoted Dr Jan as stating that an \u201ceffective screening system\u201d was in place at all entry and exit points of international airports in the country.<\/p>\n<p>Among the 15 reported cases, eight were detected by the lab at the NIH, five by Karachi\u2019s Aga Khan University Hospital and two by Karachi\u2019s Dow University of Health Sciences, Shah said.<\/p>\n<p>The health minister was quoted as saying that the ministry was monitoring the situation on a special basis and was ensuring that all necessary steps were being taken to protect the public from the new variant. The federal government was in contact with its provincial counterparts, he added.<\/p>\n<h2><a id=\"measures-against-new-variant\" href=\"#measures-against-new-variant\" class=\"heading-permalink\" aria-hidden=\"true\" title=\"Permalink\"\/>Measures against new variant<\/h2>\n<p>To prevent the spread of JN.1, the same strategies as those to prevent Covid-19 are advised, such as social distancing, wearing masks, proper sanitation and hygiene.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1803325\">NIH<\/a> and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1804242\">Islamabad Healthcare Regulatory Authority<\/a> (IHRA) have issued advisories regarding the new sub-variant to ensure timely preventive and control measures.<\/p>\n<p>As per the NIH advisory, JN.1 has been classified by the WHO as a VOI with genetic changes predicted or known to affect virus characteristics such as transmissibility, disease severity, immune escape, and diagnostic or therapeutic escape.<\/p>\n<p>NIH officials said the advisory has been issued to alert and facilitate the health authorities and other stakeholders for timely preventive and control measures and ensure preparedness to deal with increased patient influx during the next few weeks.<\/p>\n<p>Screening at the international borders had been <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1802784\">increased<\/a> at the beginning of January while the federal government has also <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1803325\">decided<\/a> to procure 500,000 doses of Covid-19 vaccine.<\/p>\n<p>Sindh\u2019s health department has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1805575\/health-dept-plans-task-force-after-five-locally-transmitted-cases-of-jn1-variant-emerge\">planned<\/a> to set up a task force soon to tackle the emerging threat from JN.1 while Peshawar\u2019s district health authorities have been directed to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1804115\">enhance screening<\/a> of influenza-like illnesses and random testing for Covid-19.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The National Institute of Health\u2019s (NIH) National Command and Operations Centre (NCOC) has confirmed 15 cases of Covid-19\u2019s JN.1 variant, the health ministry said on Tuesday. Sajid Shah, the health ministry\u2019s spokesperson, quoted caretaker Health Minister Dr Nadeem Jan as saying that the situation was \u201cbeing monitored strictly, with border health services, national and provincial [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":48526,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/_img\/social-default.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-top-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48525","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48525"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48525\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}