Covid update | US brings back mask mandate, China braces for uptick in JN.1 cases as Singapore says wave on decline

Amid worries of persisting COVID cases globally, healthcare facilities in several American states have made the use of face masks mandatory on their premises while authorities in Singapore indicated that the current wave of infections in the country seems to be falling. China, meanwhile, is braced for an uptick in cases as citizens travelled across the country and abroad for Christmas and New Year, and for the upcoming Lunar Year holidays in February.

JN.1, a new variant of Covid-19, has been driving the rise in Covid-19 cases in the US and other parts of the world.  The World Health Organisation, in its most recent update last month, had designated it as a variant of interest. “JN.1, a sub-lineage of BA.2.86 Omicron variant has been designated a separate variant of interest (VOI) apart from its parent lineage BA.2.86 due to its rapid increase in prevalence in recent weeks,” it said in an update.

Here’s a look at the current Covid situation:

📌 United States: Hospitals and healthcare facilities in at least four American states — New York, California, Illinois and Massachusetts — have made face masks mandatory for patients and providers.

Speaking to the New York City-based WABC TV, the City Health Commissioner Dr Ashwin Vasan said that mask mandates had resumed at all 11 of the city’s public hospitals, 30 health centers and five long-term care facilities. “What we don’t want is staffing shortages, right? When we saw the omicron wave in 2022, the biggest issues were not only people getting sick, but that we had a lot of frontline health workers, they were out with Covid,” Vasan said, as per a report in the news agency Reuters.

As per the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there have been more than 29,000 hospitalisations from Covid across the US from December 17 to 23, which is 16% more than the previous’s week’s record. The CDC also reported over 14,700 flu hospitalisations in that same period, as per Reuters report.

📌 Singapore: Authorities are anticipating a fall in Covid-19 cases as the number of infected patients admitted to hospitals and intensive care units (ICUs) has declined in the past week, as per a report in the local paper The Strait Times. While 864 patients were admitted to hospitals in the week before the last one, the number fell to nearly half (496) in the past week. Similarly, while 23 people needed intensive care two weeks ago, that number declined to 13 in the past week, said the report.

Infections had peaked in the tiny nation last month, with 58,300 infected, 965 hospitalised and 32 admitted to ICUs in the December 10-16 week, as per official data. While there are concerns that the holiday returnees could contribute to a spike in infections, Professor Alex Cook, vice-dean of research at the National University of Singapore’s Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, told The Strait Times that this is unlikely.

The recent wave “means there is sufficient immunity in the population as a whole such that the current strain cannot sustain itself,” he said, adding, “So even if returning holidaymakers are coming back sick, they won’t kick off another wave unless they bring new variants that can circumvent the patterns of immunity we have at present.”

📌 China: The Chinese government has warned the public to be on alert for Covid cases, keeping in mind the upcoming holidays related to the Lunar New Year in February. Currently, the EG.5 variant of Covid-19 is prevalent in China, but the government is expecting more JN.1 cases as foreign travellers return home, as per a report in South China Morning Post. 

Li Zhengmao, from the National Administration of Disease Prevention and Control, told the paper last week that the country is bracing for an uptick in multiple respiratory diseases during the winter.

“Due to the continued stream of imported cases of JN.1 and the mass movement of people before and after the Lunar New Year, the JN.1 variant is likely to become a prevailing variant in the country, and that will cause an increase in Covid-19 cases,” Li said, adding, “[The rise in JN.1 cases] will increase the risks of severe cases and deaths among elderly and vulnerable people with underlying diseases. It will also create pressure on the health system in rural areas as they are less able to treat the infected.”

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