Dr Lal Pathlabs, Thyrocare, other diagnostic test stocks rise after Centre issues guidelines on JN.1 COVID-19 variant

Stocks of diagnostic test providers, such as Dr Lal Pathlabs and Thyrocare, were in high demand on Dalal Street on Tuesday after the government issued guidelines in connection with 'JN.1', a new variant of COVID-19, amid an uptick in infections in some parts of the country. Dr Lal Pathlabs (LALPATHLAB), Thyrocare Technologies, Global Health (MEDANTA), Vijaya Diagnostic Centre and Krsnaa Diagnostics shares registered gains to the tune of 2-5 per cent in early trade. 

At 10:25 am, the Dr Lal Pathlabs stock was left with a gain of 0.1 per cent at Rs 2,524.2 apiece on BSE, while Thyrocare was up 4.2 per cent at Rs 641.1, Global Health up 1.2 per cent at Rs 933.3, Vijaya up 4.2 per cent at Rs 641 and Krsnaa up 4.0 per cent at Rs 751.

After market hours on Monday, the central government asked states and Union Territories to maintain a constant vigil against amid increasing COVID-19 infections and the detection of the first case of the new variant in the country. In a letter to states and Union Territories, Union Health Secretary Sudhansh Pant wrote: "Due to consistent and collaborative actions between the Centre and state governments, we have been able to sustain the (COVID-19) trajectory at sustainable low rates."

"However, as the COVID-19 virus continues to circulate and its epidemiology behaviour gets settled with Indian weather conditions and circulation of other usual pathogens, it is important to keep the momentum going to effectively deal with the challenges in public health," the letter added.

The central government advised the states to "ensure adequate testing in all the districts as per COVID-19 testing guidelines and maintain the recommended share of RT-PCR and Antigen tests".

The health secretary also pointed out that states like Kerala had reported a slight increase in the number of COVID-19 infections.

The country's first case of the COVID-19 variant, JN.1, was detected in Kerala on December 8.

The health ministry advised the states to put in place requisite public health measures and other arrangements to minimise the risk of increase in transmission of the disease by adherence to maintenance of respiratory hygiene, in view of the ongoing festive season. 

It also directed the states to monitor and report district-wise influenza-like Illness (ILI) and severe acute respiratory illness (SARI) cases in all health facilities regularly in order to aid the detection of the early rising trend of cases.

The Centre also encouraged the states to increase the number of RT-PCR tests and send positive samples for genome sequencing to Indian SARS COV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG) laboratories to enable timely detection of new variants.

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