Raja Syed Rather
Srinagar, Dec 13 : A total of 279 deaths due to COVID-19 have been reported in Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh since 2022. The fatalities include 267 deaths in J&K and 12 in Ladakh, as per official data.
According to details obtained by the news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), J&K reported 259 deaths in 2022, seven in 2023, and one in 2024. Ladakh reported 12 deaths in 2022, while no fatalities were recorded in 2023 and 2024. J&K recorded 138,250 cases in 2022, 2,630 in 2023, and 153 in 2024. Ladakh reported 7,239 cases in 2022, 202 in 2023, and 74 in 2024.
“The World Health Organization (WHO) has identified JN.1 as the only current Variant of Interest, first detected globally in August 2023. In India, cases of JN.1 were first reported in November 2023,” the government said.
“As of December 6, 2024, the WHO has reported that there are no currently circulating Variants of Concern (VoCs) for COVID-19,” it said. “However, the JN.1 variant, designated as a Variant of Interest (VoI) by WHO on December 18, 2023, remains the most prevalent SARS-CoV-2 variant globally.”
First detected in August 2023, cases of the JN.1 variant in India were initially reported in November 2023, the government said—(KNO)
