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[UPDATE] COVID-19: WHO tracks new BA.2.86 variant
Greenhalgh, who is also a member of Independent Sage, a group of academics that called for an Australian-style COVID elimination strategy early on in the pandemic, acknowledged that she understood a little of the detail, however.
The World Health Organization, WHO, says it is tracking a new COVID-19 variant known as BA.2.86. A tweet by Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, an epidemiologist and lead for the COVID response at the WHO, cautioned that there is very limited information available on the strain but said it needs monitoring due to its large number of mutations.
Van Kerkhove said surveillance and sequencing are critical to detecting new variants and tracking known ones.
Two cases of the new strain were found in Denmark earlier this week by an online virus tracker, which initially raised concerns about it. An identical lineage had been discovered in Israel just the day before.
Because of the variety of mutations each virus carries, virologists are confident that all three are the same virus. Scientists can determine each viral sample’s precise genetic make-up through a procedure known as “sequencing.”
The portion of the virus that attaches to human cells and spreads infection, the spike protein, has more than 30 alterations, according to preliminary studies on BA.6.
Some scientists have already called for the return of face coverings to slow the spread of the strain.
In a tweet, Dr. Trisha Greenhalgh, a primary healthcare expert at the University of Oxford, also wrote: “My various science WhatsApp groups are buzzing. Genetic lineage clips and diagrams are flying back and forth.’
The professor, who is also a member of the group Independent SAGE, added, ‘I understand little of the detail, but it looks like it’s once again time to mask up”.
Several have unknown functions, but others are thought to help the virus evade the immune system.
However, it still remains unclear if it will succeed in spreading efficiently or if it will just fizzle out like many other heavily mutated variants.
Greenhalgh, who is also a member of Independent Sage, a group of academics that called for an Australian-style COVID elimination strategy early on in the pandemic, acknowledged that she understood a little of the detail, however.
