The World Health Organization (WHO) announced on Friday that it is closely monitoring a new variant of the coronavirus responsible for covid-19, even though “the potential impact of its numerous mutations (…) is unknown”.
The WHO decided to classify a new variant “in the category of supervised variants due to the very high number (more than 30) of mutations,” according to the epidemiological bulletin dedicated to covid-19 released this morning.
So far, this new variant has only been discovered in Israel, Denmark and the United States.
WHO appointed #COVID-19 variant BA.2.86 as a “variant under monitoring” nowadays due to the large number of mutations it carries.
So far, only a few sequences of the variant have been reported from a handful of countries.
https://t.co/3tJkDZdY1V– World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) August 17, 2023
In the US, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed that it is also closely monitoring the variant, in a post on the social network X (formerly Twitter).
CDC is tracking a new lineage of the virus that causes COVID-19. This lineage is called BA.2.86 and has been found in the United States, Denmark and Israel. CDC is gathering more information and will share more about this lineage as we learn.
— CDC (@CDCgov) August 18, 2023
Currently, only four known sequences of this variant have been identified, with no known associated epidemiological link, the WHO explained.
“The potential impact of BA.2.86 mutations is currently unknown and under careful evaluation,” the organization said.
The WHO currently has seven variants classified as under surveillance and three as variants of concern, including EG.5, whose identification was first reported in February.
Last week, the organization warned that this variant could cause an increase in the incidence of infections and become dominant in some countries or even the world.
The WHO bulletin says more than 1.4 million new cases of covid-19 were reported between July 17 and August 13, a 63% increase over the previous 28-day period. On the contrary, the death toll fell by 56% to over 2,300.
European center classifies new variants and warns against spread
On Thursday, the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) warned of the increase in the spread and transmission of Covid-19 in Europe, “after several months of very low infection rates”, there are currently no “signs of increased hospitalizations or pressure on health systems”.
In a press release, ECDC announced that it had classified the recombinant strains of the Omicron variant of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus as variants of interest.
The center stressed that these strains “may have immune escape properties compared to variants previously in circulation,” meaning vaccines may be less effective.
ECDC said that “levels are unlikely to reach the previous peaks seen during the Covid-19 pandemic” but recalled that older individuals and those with underlying illnesses could develop severe symptoms if they are infected.
The European agency urged the member states of the European Union to expand the use of vaccines against covid-19.
As of August 13, WHO had recorded more than 769 million confirmed cases and more than 6.9 million deaths from Covid-19 in the world, though the organization admits the true numbers are much higher.
Source: DN
