Key Takeaways
- The BA.2.86 variant has been confirmed in the United States, Denmark and Israel.
- Both the CDC and WHO are actively monitoring the strain, labeling it a “variant under monitoring.”
- Earlier WHO alerts included the EG.5 and Eris strains, highlighting ongoing global surveillance of coronavirus mutations.
Washington: A new COVID-19 variant, dubbed BA.2.86, has been detected in the United States, Denmark and Israel and is being tracked, US Center For Disease and Control Prevention (CDC) said Thursday.
“CDC is tracking a new lineage of the virus that causes COVID-19. This lineage is named BA.2.86, and has been detected in the United States, Denmark and Israel,” the center said on X (formerly known as Twitter).
CDC added that it is collecting “more information and will share more about this lineage as we learn it.”
Earlier in the day, the World Health Organization (WHO) designated the BA.2.86 strain as a “variant under monitoring” due to the large number of mutations it carries.
Last week, WHO also classified a new coronavirus strain called EG.5 and Eris as a “variant of interest,” noting that the first samples of the strain were detected in February.
According to the WHO, Eris has been detected in 51 countries, including the US, the United Kingdom, China and countries in Europe and Asia. Over 1 million new COVID-19 cases were reported to the WHO in July, and about 3,100 people died from the infection last month.
