Highly mutated COVID variant ‘Pirola’ JN.1 is spawning. Its descendants are climbing the charts, as the global death toll mounts
Nearly 10,000 COVID deaths occurred globally in December, the World Health Organization said this week—this as highly mutated “Pirola” JN.1 offspring spawn and begin their upward ascents in the U.S. and elsewhere.
The global wave occurs after holiday gatherings, as expected, and comes as JN.1 dominates worldwide, the organization’s director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said at a Wednesday news conference in Geneva.
Reported COVID hospitalizations increased by 42%, Ghebreyesus said, and ICU admissions by 62% in December, when compared to November.
The numbers are certainly underestimates, he added. That’s because only a quarter of the world’s countries are still providing COVID data to the WHO—less than 50 of 193 nations, most located 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 take off
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 as of Jan. 6, according to the latest CDC projections.
The highly mutated variant’s 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,” 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, Rajnarayanan told Fortune, citing 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 the U.S. variant chart included JN.1.1, which comprised 6% of sequences, and JN.1.2, which comprised a little over 1% of sequences, as of Thursday.
#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 potentially all major variants evolving from it, for the foreseeable future, and picking up additional mutations that could either help or harm the virus.
JN.1.4 includes a mutation, Spike R346T, that JN.1 doesn’t have—and that could make it even more immune evasive. Some previous variants like BA.2.75.2, BA.4.6, BQ.1.1, and XBB.1 also contained the mutation.
“JN.1 and its derivatives will continue to dominate the global landscape for the foreseeable future,” Jay Weiland—a variant forecaster with a reputation for high accuracy and one of few left in the business, at this late date—told Fortune.
Ryan Gregory—a biology professor at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada, and a lead variant tracker—told Fortune that
