CDC Alert: Fast-Spreading COVID Variant Accounts for Nearly 90 Percent of Cases

A COVID-19 variant that emerged in the middle part of 2023 now accounts for about 90 percent of all cases in the United States, said the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). As of Jan. 20, the JN.1 variant specifically makes up about 85 percent of cases, the CDC said in an update. Officials and researchers have signaled that there are no signs the variant causes more severe disease or hospitalizations than prior variants. In October, when JN.1 was first reported via the CDC’s tracker, it made up approximately 1 percent of all U.S. cases. But since then, the variant has quickly spread, prompting an alert from the World Health Organization, which listed it as a “variant of interest.” It became the dominant COVID-19 strain in the U.S. in late December, officials said at the time....