Highly Mutant Covid 19 Variant, BA.2.86, Detected In Four Countries
Uncertainties are surfacing as countries have reported a widely mutated novel variant of Covid 19 virus, signaling high vigilance to countries. The corona variant trackers on social platforms have named, the new variant BA.2.86 as Pirola, reported the ET.
The highly mutated strain of Covid 19 has been detected by health authorities in United States, United Kingdom, Israel and Denmark. Though the number of cases is only 6, one each in the case of US, UK and Israel, and three in Denmark, speculations of renewed surge in infections are being raised. The scientists are said to be closely monitoring the new mutations BA.2.86, if it could be of any lethal harm to human immune system as it has 36 mutations, the HT said. Some sources have reported that the number of mutations that BA.2.86 has are 30 while some others have reported 36.
BA.2.86, the variant emerges from an earlier segment of coronavirus, and so it is divergent from the variant that the currently existing vaccines have been considered to fight upon, HT quoted Reuters report. What makes BA.2.86 different is its many mutations, and scientists are keen to understand its radically different structure, as to, know if this variant would outperform the others and about its spread and impact on human immune system.
The presently dominant variant is XBB.1.5 variant. Of now, there are no reports suggesting the fast or serious spread of BA.2.86, the US authorities are suggesting the return to the earlier covid protection guidelines.
Though covid 19 cases had been on the rise in the US, Europe and Asia, these were to the EG.5 ‘Eris’ subvariant which came in after Omicron, which showed up in November 2021. This is causing 17 percent of Covid-19 cases in the US, in comparison to the 16 percent cases occurring from the next common, XBB.1.16 variant, as per the US CDC, HT reported. Meanwhile, WHO has said that the BA.2.86 ‘warrants attention’ and EG.5 has been termed ‘as a variant of interest’, pointing that it should be kept under watch.
On the new variant, the WHO said, it would update the countries as they learn more about it, calling for transparency in matters of reporting the strain. As per the available data, though the Eris variable is spreading, people are not as sick as the previous waves made them, but if BA.2.86 spreads, there are speculations that it could bring in death and illness, this cannot be ruled out, reported the HT quoting Dr. Eric Topol, a genomics expert and director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute in La Jolla, California. Vaccines would still provide a strong defence, with new boosters coming up for XBB.1.5 and newer vaccines would come up for Eris and another variant, Fornax, HT reported.
