Ahmedabad, Dec 28 (PTI) The coronavirus situation in Gujarat is not alarming as 22 of the 36 patients infected with sub-variant JN.1 so far have already recovered during home isolation, said the state's health minister Rushikesh Patel on Thursday.

Addressing a press conference in Gandhinagar, Patel said Gujarat currently has 66 active cases of COVID-19, including 47 in Ahmedabad, 10 in Rajkot, 4 in Gandhinagar, and one each in Dahod, Gir Somnath, Kutch, Morbi and Sabarkantha districts.

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Of these 66 infected persons, only two are hospitalised. Others are receiving care at home, he said.

Patel, who is also the spokesperson of the Gujarat government, said the state performs genome sequencing in every positive case and shares the details with Delhi for confirmation.

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“Last week, we performed genome sequencing of all the positive samples and sent a report to Delhi for confirmation to ascertain the variant. As per the report we received (from Delhi) yesterday, 36 persons were found infected with JN.1 variant. Of these, 22 have already recovered during home isolation, while 14 are still under home isolation,” he said.

The numbers show that hospitalisation was not needed for those infected with the new sub-variant, he said.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has classified JN.1 as a separate “variant of interest” given its rapidly increasing spread, but said it poses a "low" global public health risk.

“There is no need to panic. People just need to take extra precautions. The coronavirus situation in Gujarat is not alarming. Since we perform genome sequencing of each and every positive patient, cases of JN.1 variant are higher in Gujarat in comparison to other states,” said Patel.

A total of 157 cases of COVID-19 sub-variant JN.1 have been detected in the country, with Kerala reporting the highest number of 78, followed by Gujarat, according to the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG) on Thursday.

Of the 844 tests conducted on Wednesday across Gujarat, Patel said, only 14 samples were found to be infected with coronavirus.

In the entire December month so far, the state government has conducted 8,426 COVID-19 tests and detected 99 infections, which shows a positive rate of just 0.86 per cent, he said.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)