Dec. 19, 2023 -- A subvariant of the COVID-19 virus is growing in the United States and is already dominant in the Northeast, according to the latest CDC figures.
In that part of the country, the subvariant JN.1 is causing about a third of new cases, the CDC says, and it’s responsible for about 20% across the country and is the fastest-growing strain.
The prevalence of JN.1 doubled between late November and the middle of December, aided by holiday travel and lesser immunity, the CDC says.
“When I just look at the growth curve, it is rising quite sharply, and it seems to coincide with the Thanksgiving break in terms of timing,” Shishi Luo of Helix, a genomic sequencing company, told CNN.
Many Americans didn’t get booster shots this fall or last year. As of Dec. 9, about 18% of adults had received the latest version, the CDC reports. That’s similar to last year’s figure.
In the past four weeks, COVID-19 hospitalizations rose 51%, the CDC says.
“The CDC has called on doctors to work harder to get their patients vaccinated, emphasizing that it’s not too late in the season to benefit from the shots,” CNN reported.
The network reported that JN.1 is a descendant of BA.2.86, or Pirola, which gained attention over the summer. The newer variant is two generations way from BA.2.86 and “has only one change to its spike protein compared with its ancestor, but that seems to have been enough to make it a fitter and faster virus.”
Around the world, some researchers say antibodies have less ability to neutralize JN.1 enough to cause a new wave of infections. Some European countries have seen “exponential growth of JN.1” and rising hospitalizations, CNN says; it’s also growing in Australia, Asia and Canada.