Variant ‘on way’

Barbadians are being told to brace for the inevitability of the highly transmissible strain of COVID-19, JN.1, reaching this country’s shores.

At the same time, Senior Medical Officer Dr Leslie Rollock is urging Barbadians not to be “overly concerned” about the impact of the latest strain, which has been labelled a variant of interest by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

She said given the fact that JN.1 is now the dominant strain in several of Barbados’ tourism source markets, it was now only a matter of time when the strain would arrive among the tourists coming to Barbados for the winter tourist season.

She pointed out that the new variant was not as virulent as some of the previous ones which carried the risk of high mortality.

Rollock also said it was unknown whether the protections that the population gained because of the previous variants would provide some natural resistance. However, she warned that the elderly and the immunocompromised were still very much at risk.  (CLM)