HCMCity (VNA) – The Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health reported onJanuary 24 that the city's infectious disease surveillance system has detectedthe emergence of sub-variant JN.1 of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus in hospitalised patients inDecember last year in the locality.

JN.1 is a sub-variant from the BA.2.86 variantof Omicron classified by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a "variantof Interest” (VOI), which is the cause of the increasing number of cases anddeaths in some countries.

According to data from the Ho Chi Minh City Centre for Disease Control (HCDC) from December 18, 2023, to January 22, 2024, local hospitals treated94 COVID-19 cases from the city and several adjacent localities. Among thein-patients, 17 severe cases require supplemental oxygen.  All the severe cases involve individuals in the high-risk group with serious underlying diseases, and have not been vaccinated with enough COVID-19 vaccine doses followinginstructions from the Ministry of Health.

Notably, the number of hospitalised cases at the Ho Chi Minh City Hospital of Tropical Diseases due to the pandemic has increasedin the last six weeks.

Themunicipal Department of Health said the JN.1 sub-variant appeared in the cityafter the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (US CDC) reported it as the fastest growing variant and dominate in theUS in December last year.

In December 2023, nearly 10,000 deaths fromCOVID-19 were reported worldwide while the number of hospitalised cases surged42% from the previous month. New variants of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus havecontinuously mutated, and sub-variant JN.1 is spreading rapidly around theglobe, according to WHO.

In Vietnam, the northern region is now in thetransitional period between winter and spring, when cold and dry weather isalternated with wet weather, triggering infectious diseases, especiallyrespiratory ones.

It warned that the coming Lunar New Year(Tet) holidays and spring festive season, when trading and travel demandsurges, along with abnormal weather changes are favourable conditions fordiseases to spread, particularly among children with weak immunity and theelderly with comorbidities, who are more vulnerable to infectiousdiseases.

The municipal Department of Health advised residents to takemeasures to protect themselves, their families and the community, includingwearing a mask in medical facilities and crowded places or when havingrespiratory symptoms, regularly washing hands with soap or hand sanitiser, and rinsingmouth and throat with mouthwash.

People, especially those in at-risk groups, are recommended to get booster shots against COVID-19./.