CDC States JN.1 Accounts for Nearly 90% of Circulating COVID Variants

Despite federal representatives ending the national public health emergency associated with the SARS-CoV-2 virus, the CDC’s COVID-19 tracking data continually reveals that the pandemic is far from over. Through viral monitoring, the organization has tracked the emergence of new variants. In a respiratory illness update on January 22, 2024, the public health entity revealed that JN.1 SARS-CoV-2 variants were the most prevalent in the preceding week.

Between January 7, 2024, and January 13, 2024, 11.8% of COVID-19 tests returned positive results. Although this is a 1% decline from previous weeks, the data fails to account for COVID-19-positive patients who were not tested or did not report positive home tests.

Similarly, the CDC noted a 19% decline in COVID-19 diagnoses during emergency department visits, with only 2.5% of ED visits yielding a COVID-19 diagnosis.

While the total COVID-19-related hospitalization count has reached 6,727,163 hospitalizations, the 32,861 hospital admissions between January 7 and January 13, 2024, represented a 9.6% decrease in hospitalizations from the previous week.

Trends in test positivity, emergency department diagnosis, and hospitalizations are deceptive because — despite a reduction in each of these cases — COVID-19 death rates are actually increasing. The CDC notes that in the time other events were supposedly declining, COVID-19 death rates increased 10.3% from the previous weeks, accounting for 4.3% of all deaths in the United States.

A closer look at virus prevalence revealed that 83–88% of circulating viral variants between January 7, 2024, and January 20, 2024, are JN.1 variants. In context, this variant's prevalence is significantly higher now than the 55–68% reported in the two weeks before this data, making it the most common circulating variant domestically.

Additionally, the CDC notes that this variant is the most common among international travelers and the highest in wastewater viral levels globally.

According to an article by Yale Medicine, JN.1 first emerged in the US in September 2023. The variant bears a resemblance to BA.2.86 through the Omicron lineage that has been of interest since August 2023. The primary difference between the two subvariants is a mutation in the spike protein.

Early research on the JN.1 variant suggests this mutation may enhance its ability to invade the immune system. Despite these theories, there is minimal data on this variant aside from its rapid evolution.

As scientists continue to explore and assess these variants, providers should urge their patients to protect themselves through vaccination and good public health practices.