LONDON – Another variant of the much-debated Coronavirus has emerged, puzzling scientists from across the world and prompting concerns for one more time.
The World Health Organization and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have started examining the highly mutated lineage of the virus that caused COVID-19 and disrupted everything from airspace to tech ecosystem and trade.
What’s worrying at the moment is the fact that six cases in four countries have been detected since late July. The new lineage, named BA.2.86 is still under the watch of health experts who are not sure whether it spreads swiftly or causes more serious illness than previous versions.
BA.2.86 has 36 mutations that differentiate it from the currently-dominant XBB.1.5 variant and its emergence has prompted health practitioners to advise people to return to adopting safety protocols including wearing a mask.
As far as the cases are concerned, public health authorities have documented one case each of BA.2.86 in the United States, the UK, and Israel, and three cases in Denmark; the case in Israel was detected on Sunday.
According to Dr. S. Wesley Long, medical director of diagnostic microbiology at Houston Methodist Hospital, BA.2.86 stems from an “earlier branch” of the coronavirus, so it differs from the variant targeted by current vaccines. The doctor, however, says the vaccine is still going to provide people with great defense against illness and death.
Opinion in the United Kingdom is also inconclusive as UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) stressed there is “insufficient data” to assess how serious the BA.2.86 strain might be, or how the existing vaccine could protect people against this new variant.
Research is underway and we are still not sure what needs to be done to combat the variant except the usage of masks and social distancing protocols. It is expected that the World Health Organization (WHO) would soon give conclusive suggestions about the variant that has – at the moment – surprised health experts.
The World Health Organization has branded BA.2.86 a “variant under monitoring” on Thursday, which means countries have been urged to track and report the sequences they find.
Although it is still not sure how far the variant is contagious, what has surprised the scientists is the fact that the three cases in Denmark were detected in people in different parts of the country who did not get into physical contact with each other.
Contrary to the inference derived from the Denmark cases, the UK’s Health Security Agency implied that there is established international transmission relying on the fact that these sequences are in four different countries.
