HQ Team
September 11, 2023: A total of 34 confirmed cases of the COVID-19 virus variant, BA.2.86, have been identified in the UK, according to a government agency.
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has published its SARS-CoV-2 variant surveillance and assessment technical briefing 53. Of these, 5 were hospitalised and no deaths due to COVID-19 have been reported amongst these cases.
The assessment contains the latest epidemiological and genomic analysis of the emergent BA.2.86 variant.
This variant was detected in the UK on August 18 and has also been identified in Israel, Denmark and the US. It has been designated as V-2023Aug01 for the purpose of UKHSA monitoring.
Multiple unlinked cases in different regions without reported travel history suggested a degree of community transmission within the UK, according to the assessment.
“However, there is currently not enough data to conclude what the extent of this transmission might be.
“It is also too early to draw conclusions on the impact the variant may have on the UK population due either to its clinical or immune escape properties.”
Twenty-eight cases of the 34 reported were from a single outbreak at a care home in Norfolk. “Specialists from UKHSA have been working with Norfolk County Council to offer infection control advice and support.”
Staff and residents of the care home were asked to undergo polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing by local health protection officials when an unusually high number of people became unwell.
Positive samples were sent for whole genome sequencing at UKHSA laboratories, where BA.2.86 was confirmed in the majority of samples.
Though it was too early to draw any conclusions about how BA.2.86 will behave in the wider UK population, it is an early indicator that it may be sufficiently transmissible to have an impact in close
“Specialists from UKHSA have been working with Norfolk County Council to offer infection control advice and support following a confirmed outbreak of BA.2.86 in a care home,” said Dr Renu Bindra, Incident Director, UKHSA.
The Department of Health and Social Care announced last week that the autumn vaccine programme will be brought forward to 11 September as a precautionary measure following the emergence of BA.2.86.
