Posted by The World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States are watching the latest COVID Variant BA.2.86.
Since the end of July, six cases have been found in four different countries. Scientists are keeping an eye on the new variant. It has been named BA.2.86 because it has 36 mutations. That make it different from the XBB.1.5 variant, which is currently the most common.
So far, there is no proof that BA.2.86 makes illness spread faster or worse than earlier forms. The CDC said that its advice on how to stay safe from COVID-19 hasn’t changed.
Here are 5 facts about COVID Variant BA.2.86 that you should know:
1. Covid Variant BA.2.86 comes from the Omicron variant.
COVID infections and illnesses are rising in the US, Europe, and Asia. In recent months, more cases have been linked to the EG.5 eris subvariant. This descendant of the omicron lineage first appeared in November 2021.
In the last few days, public health officials have found one case of BA.2.86 in the US, one in the UK, one in Israel, and three in Denmark.
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2. Scientists still do not know much about BA.2.86.
BA.2.86 comes from an earlier variant of the coronavirus. This makes it different from the variant targeted by current vaccines.
It’s still too early to tell if BA.2.86 will beat out other strains of the virus or if it can avoid the immune reactions from being infected or vaccinated.
But many countries have greatly cut back on testing patients and trying to figure out how the viruses that cause new COVID-19 cases work by looking at their genomes. Given how quickly new cases are being found, the future of BA.2.86 doesn’t look good right now.
BA.2.86 is radically different in its structure from older versions because of its many mutations.
The big question is whether or not BA.2.86 will be easy to spread.
3. Not many people are hospitalized from this new variant.
According to statistics on the CDC website, the number of emergency room visits and hospitalizations for COVID-19 in the US is still low. Still, they have been going up since early July. So far, doctors have said that the people they have seen in the last few weeks, as the eris version has been spreading, are not as sick as the people they saw during the first waves of the pandemic.
A wider spread of BA.2.86 would likely lead to more sickness and deaths in weak groups.
It is still too early to tell if BA.2.86 will make people sicker.
4. Vaccines can protect against the new variant.
Due to the pandemic dying, it may have been a year or more since many people were sick with COVID-19 or got a vaccine.
The vaccine will still give you a great defense against sickness and death.
Targeting the omicron subvariant XBB.1.5, the new COVID-19 booster shots are currently being made.
Moderna said that early trial results suggest that its latest vaccine form shows promise against eris and “Fornax,” a related variant that has started to spread in the US.
In a study done on mice, Pfizer said that its improved COVID-19 shot was able to stop the eris subvariant from working.
5. New COVID variant is not found in Malaysia yet.
According to the Health Ministry, the new Covid-19 sub-variant called BA.2.86 has not been found in the country.
But Minister Dr. Zaliha Mustafa told people who could get the Covid-19 shots to get them right away to protect themselves from a mutated variant.
Even if there were no infections, the government would monitor the latest variant to prevent spread.
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