Another Covid surge

Authorities should keep an eye on the new variant

Even as the world is heading into a holiday season and travel is expected to increase, Covid-19 cases are again rising globally. Countries and regions with more effective surveillance mechanisms are reporting a surge in infections, driven in particular by a new variant that has been called JN.1. This is a sublineage of BA.2.86, which had emerged over the past year as the dominant strain of Omicron. Singapore’s ministry of health noted that the week after December 3 saw 56,000 infections, compared with 32,000 the previous week. Even more worryingly, the state of Kerala has reported four deaths due to