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JN. 1, an off-shoot of the Omicron strain, now makes up 93 percent of COVID cases in the United States after accounting for less than 5 percent of infections nationally in early November, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports.
JN.1 cases in the US have more than doubled over the last month.
"Its rapid spread suggests it is either more transmissible or better at evading the immune system than other circulating variants," according to Yale Medicine.
In late December, it caused 44 percent of cases in the US, after making up around 22 percent of infections in the middle of December.
That's when the World Health Organization (WHO) declared JN.1 to be "a variant of interest."
According to the American Medical Association's Vice President of Science, Medicine, and Public Health Andrea Garcia, "JN.1 doesn't seem to be causing more severe illness than previous variants. The symptoms you're going to see if you're infected with JN.1 is going to depend in part on your underlying health and the level of immunity you have.
"But generally speaking, those symptoms are similar to the viruses caused by other variants, so sore throat, congestion, runny nose, cough, fatigue, headache, among others."
The latest COVID booster has proven effective in reducing the risk of symptomatic infection from JN.1, according to a report by CNN.
JN.1 was first identified in late August.
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