Bangladesh Reports New COVID Subvariant JN.1

JAKARTA - South Asian nation, Bangladesh, has detected a COVID-19 sub-variant for the first time, health authorities said.

The sub-variant, JN.1, is an omicron strain called an "attractable variant" by the World Health Organization (WHO).

JN.1 was detected in a sample test of five people, dr. Tahmina Shireen, director of the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control, and Government Research, confirmed to Anadolu quoted by ANTARA, Friday, January 19.

Strain was detected after testing samples of COVID patients inside and outside the capital Dhaka.

The infection of the variant could have increased further as COVID began to spread during winter, he added, while saying the variant was non-lethal.

WHO confirmed the new strain in December 2023. The sub-variants can spread quickly but not too badly.

On Thursday, January 18, the Directorate General of Health Services reported 18 new cases of COVID-19.

Since the first confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Bangladesh in March 2020, nearly 30,000 people have died, and more than two million people out of 170 million people have been infected with the coronavirus.

Health authorities on Tuesday said they would start a COVID-19 inoculation campaign.

A total of 25 million injections will be administered in 2024 and 2025 through the campaign, including the fourth dose of the population at risk, according to Bangladesh's Ministry of Health.