UK Confirms 34 COVID Cases Linked To Highly Mutated Variant – UKSHA

Eko Hot Blog reports that UK Health Security Agency (UKSHA) reported on Friday that 34 COVID-19 cases associated with the highly mutated variant BA.2.86 had been identified in England.

The Omicron offshoot carries more than 35 mutations in key portions of the virus compared to XBB.1.5, the dominant variant throughout most of 2023, a number roughly equivalent to the Omicron variant that led to record infections.

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Of the 34 confirmed cases identified as of Sept. 4, “five patients were hospitalized and no deaths had been linked to the new emerging variant.”

The agency revealed that “28 of the confirmed cases were identified from a single outbreak at a care home in Norfolk.”

On Wednesday, Moderna (MRNA.O) and rival Pfizer (PFE.N) announced that their updated COVID-19 vaccines had produced robust responses in tests against the BA.2.86 subvariant.

BA.2.86 was initially detected in Denmark on July 24 and has subsequently been found in symptomatic patients, routine airport screenings, and wastewater samples in various countries, including Switzerland, South Africa, Israel, Denmark, and the U.S.

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While the new data suggests early indications of community transmission in the UK and globally, the agency cautioned that it’s premature to draw definitive conclusions about the behavior of BA.2.86 in the broader UK population, though it may have a significant transmission potential in close-contact settings.

Renu Bindra, incident director at UKHSA, stated, “It is clear that there is some degree of widespread community transmission, both in the UK and globally, and we are working to ascertain the full extent of this.”

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