The new variant of Covid-19, BA.2.86, was discovered for the first time in France, Agence France-Presse Public Health France said on Thursday, August 31, confirming information from the Parisian.
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This member of the Omicron family is being closely monitored by the World Health Organization (WHO) due to a “higher number of mutations,” which makes it “likely to evolve more widely and spread more easily,” recalled the president of the surveillance committee last week and Health Risk Anticipation (Covars), Brigitte Autran.
This case of a variant was discovered in the Grand Est, Public Health France said, reporting that it had “launched an investigation to collect epidemiological information and document this first case.”
This new variant is nicknamed “Pirola” on social networks.
This variant has so far been detected in several countries, including the USA, Denmark and Israel, but not yet in France. The WHO has decided to classify this new variant, nicknamed “Pirola” on social networks, in the category of monitored variants due to the very large number (more than 30) mutations in the spike gene that it carries.
It is the spike protein that gives the virus its spiky appearance and allows SARS-CoV-2 to enter the host’s cells.
Even if BA.2.86 caused a sharp increase in infections, “we do not expect to see levels of serious illness and death comparable to those seen at the beginning of the pandemic, when Alpha, Delta or Omicron spread,” François Balloux recently commented, who heads the Bioinformatics Chair at University College London.
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