New COVID-19 variant JN.1 appears poised to become dominant in N.B.

A new COVID-19 subvariant has arrived in New Brunswick and appears to be on its way to taking over as the dominant strain.

JN.1 has been detected in New Brunswick, Department of Health spokesperson Sean Hatchard confirmed.

But he declined to say when, how many cases there are, or what percentage of sequenced cases it represents.

“New Brunswick isn’t regularly releasing detailed breakdowns of COVID-19 sub-variants, as no other province in Atlantic Canada is doing so and there have been more than 100 genetic sequences of COVID-19 detected in the province since the beginning of the pandemic,” he said in an emailed statement.

According to experts, while the strain has evolved like many of its predecessors to better evade the immune system and transmits more easily than other circulating variants, it has not shown any signs of more severe disease, and current vaccines are expected to provide protection.

The World Health Organization classified JN.1 as a “variant of interest,” which is the second-highest rank after variant of concern, in December.

It is now the dominant strain in Canada. Data from the Public Health Agency of Canada shows the offshoot of BA.2.86 and its descendants accounted for more than 88 per cent of detections, as of Jan. 21.

On Monday, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimated JN.1 accounted for nearly 86 per cent of cases in the United States, as of Jan. 19. JN.1 remains the most widely circulating variant of SARS-CoV-2 in the United States and globally, the agency said.

JN.1 and its descendants were first detected in New Brunswick in November and now account for just over 44 per cent of sequenced cases in the province, as of Jan. 19, according to the volunteer group Protect Our Province New Brunswick (PoP NB), which aims to create easy-to-access information on COVID risks and protection measures.

That’s up from about six per cent last month, according to the group.

PoP NB obtained the data through GISAID — an international non-profit project to share genome data on viruses, as contributed by the Vitalité Health Network’s originating lab.

The Department of Health is expected to release the latest COVID-19 and flu data this afternoon.