Covid-19 JN.1 variant: Symptoms and how to distinguish from regular cold

It's been almost four years since the threat of Covid-19 has ruled our lives. While slowly life was returning to normal after the pandemic, looks like a new threat has emerged in the form of a new variant, the JN.1 variant of Covid-19. The symptoms of the virus is similar to a common cold and flu and many in India have been detected with the new variant.

We at Editorji spoke to Dr. Venkat Ramesh, Infectious Disease Physician, Apollo Hyderabad. The doctor gave us insights into what are precautions to take, whether there is a reason to panic and how to detect it.

How different are JN.1 symptoms?

According to Dr Venkat the symptoms of JN.1 variant are as similar to a viral flu and cold-like fever, running nose accompanied by sore throat, diarrhea and headache. It is difficult to determine the symptoms.

Speaking about how to know if you have JN.1. the doctor said, "The only way to determine if one has Covid is to get tested. It is not possible to distinguish this new variant from a common cold or a flu. Only testing will tell us if it is SARS-COV 2 and a certain percentage of these samples are tested for they undergo what is called genomic sequencing, where we look at the DNA and RNA structure of the virus and determine what strain it belongs to."

Also watch: How lethal is the new covid variant JN.1? Dr Venkat Ramesh, Infectious Disease Expert explains