Highly mutated COVID variant ‘Pirola’ JN.1 is spawning. Its descendants are climbing the charts, as the global death toll mounts

The current global wave occurs after holiday gatherings, as expected, and comes as new, highly mutated COVID variant “Pirola” JN.1 dominates worldwide, the organization’s director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said at a Wednesday news conference in Geneva.

Reported hospitalizations increased by 42%, Ghebreyesus said, and ICU admissions by 62%, when compared to November.

The numbers are certainly underestimated, he added, because many countries are no longer reporting COVID cases, hospitalizations, and deaths to the international health organization, and because testing continues to sit at all-time lows.

The data comes from only a quarter of the world’s countries—less than 50 of the world’s 193 nations are reporting—mostly those in Europe and America.

“Although 10,000 deaths a month is far less than the peak of the pandemic, this level of preventable death is not acceptable,” he said. 

‘Pirola’ JN.1 spawn begin their ascent

The global trends mirror those in the U.S., where COVID deaths were up 12.5% week-over-week and hospitalizations were up more than 20% as of Dec. 30, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In the U.S., too, JN.1 dominates, comprising an estimated 62% of cases in the U.S. as of Jan. 6, according to CDC projections.

And its spawn are already climbing the charts, according to Raj Rajnarayanan—assistant dean of research and associate professor at the New York Institute of Technology campus in Jonesboro, Ark., and a top COVID variant tracker.

JN.1.4—a “child” variant, so to speak, of JN.1—was the No. 3 most commonly reported variant in the U.S. on Thursday, comprising 11.5% of sequences, according to Rajnarayanan, using data from GISAID, an international research organization that tracks changes in COVID and the flu virus.

It’s responsible for 11% of sequences globally, he added.

Other Pirola spawn topping U.S. variants included JN.1.1, which comprised 6% of sequences, and JN.1.2, which comprised a little over 1% of sequences.

#COVID19 #VariantDashboard – #USA #SARSCoV2 #Lineages #30DAYTRENDS

JN.1 (27.7%)👁️
HV.1 (14.9%)⬇️
JN.1.4 (11.5%)⬆️👀
JN.1.1 (5.9%)
JD.1.1 (2.8%)
HK.3 (2.4%)
JG.3 (1.9%)
FL.1.5.1 (1.4%)
BA.2.86.1 (1.3%)
JN.1.2 (1.3%)

Tracker: https://t.co/C4MNBUxBZA | 01/11/24
1/n pic.twitter.com/9EoshLL2Jf

— Raj Rajnarayanan (@RajlabN) January 11, 2024

“Pirola” JN.1 may be the beginning of a new chapter in the pandemic, some experts say, with all dominant variants for the foreseeable future evolving from it and picking up additional mutations that could either help or harm the virus. 

Already, JN.1.4 contains a mutation, Spike R346T, that could make it even more immune evasive—one contained in some previous mutations like BA.2.75.2, BA.4.6, BQ.1.1, and XBB.1.

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