Hyderabad: Is the COVID-19 era over? On Sunday, Dr. Kiran Madhala, a health expert and Scientific Committee Convener for the Indian Medical Association (IMA), stated that the COVID-19 period, spanning from 2019 to 2025, concludes with the JN.1 variant.
Dr. Kiran Madhala explained that COVID-19 is now in an endemic stage, as seen in the changing patterns of SARS-CoV-2 variants worldwide. Before JN.1 emerged, there was a consistent global variant pattern.
After JN.1, each country started showing unique evolutionary paths. In India, the progression is towards the XEG lineage through JF.7. Meanwhile, Singapore moves towards NB.1.8.1, a descendant of XDV. Although India detected its first NB.1.8.1 case in April 2025, it hasn’t become widespread. This shift from global uniformity to localized variant evolution signifies COVID-19’s endemic nature, according to Dr. Kiran.
Dr. Kiran also discussed the XFG variant, which has four important spike protein mutations: H445R, N487D, Q493E, and T572I. It spread rapidly worldwide after first appearing in Canada. Variants LF.7.9 and XFG show reduced binding affinity due to mutations like A475V in LF.7.9 and N487D in XFG. These mutations lower receptor engagement efficiency. The XFG variant has a high ability to evade immunity, raising concerns about vaccine and antibody effectiveness. Both XFG and LF.7 evolved from the Omicron lineage: Omicron BA.2 → BA.2.86 → JN.1 → JN.1.16.1 → LF.7 → XFG. These are likely to be monitored as variants with low infection levels, according to Dr. Kiran.
