Friday, the United Kingdom Health Security Agency (UKHSA) identified the country’s first case of COVID-19 variant BA.2.86.
UKHSA disclosed in a statement posted to its website that the new COVID-19 variant was detected in a person with no recent travel history.
The Deputy Director of UKHSA, Dr. Meera Chand, stated, “We are aware of a confirmed case in the United Kingdom.” We will provide additional information in due time after conducting a thorough evaluation."
Thursday, the United States Department of Health and Human Services and the World Health Organization announced that they were closely monitoring a new strain of Covid-19.
Despite this, the potential impact of BA.2.86 is presently unknown because the WHO has designated the virus as a ‘variant under monitoring’ due to the high number of mutations it carries.
Additionally, the BA.2.86 variant has been identified in Denmark, Israel, and the United States.