The Most Common Symptoms of the New Covid Variant, JN.1
WE'RE NOW ENTERING the fifth year of Covid-19, and it can be difficult to keep up with the new variants that keep popping up. And yes, there’s yet another one floating around this winter: JN.1. It follows the EG.5 (Eris), FL.1.5.1 (Fornax), XBB.1.16, and XBB.1.5, which were circulating during the fall.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, JN.1 accounted for about 62 percent of new Covid cases as of early January 2024. It’s the fastest-growing variant in the U.S. right now.
JN.1 has been the main variant circulating since December, says David Dobrzynski, M.D., an infectious disease physician at the University of Rochester Medical Center. But, since it’s relatively new, he says doctors don’t know everything about it just yet.
“It’s a variant of interest, but not really a variant of concern,” he says. “It doesn’t seem to be causing severe disease. But, at the same time, that doesn’t mean we should be lax about it.”
The CDC says Covid activity is “currently high,” and infections, hospitalizations, and deaths have increased over the past few weeks. The agency says JN.1 could be driving the spread of Covid this winter.
The most common COVID symptoms of 2024
According to Bernadette Boden-Albala, MPH, Dr.P.H., director and founding dean of the University of California, Irvine’s Program in Public Health, just like with most winters, it’s not uncommon for people to be dealing with coughing, congestion, and sore throats right now—all of which can signal the flu, common cold, RSV, and, yes, Covid.
Symptoms of JN.1 resemble the symptoms of past variants, including:
- Runny nose
- Congestion
- Sore throat
- Shortness of breath
- Fever
- Extreme tiredness
- Dry coughs
- Muscle aches
It’s too early to tell how contagious JN.1 is.
The JN.1, which is closely related to the BA.2.86 variant that the CDC has tracked since August, was first detected in September 2023. But it didn’t become the main strain until late December, according to the CDC’s Covid Data Tracker.
“When a variant kind of creeps up to become the predominant strain, we always worry about it being more transmissible or evading our vaccines,” Dr. Dobrzynski says. “Right now, there doesn’t seem to be any evidence that that’s the case.”
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