UK reports first case of new Covid-19 variant, individual has no recent travel history

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said on Friday the first case of Covid-19 variant BA.2.86 had been detected in the country in an individual with no recent travel history.

On Thursday, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it was tracking the new, highly mutated variant of the virus that causes the disease.

The variant has also been identified in Israel, Denmark and the United States.

US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that it was tracking a new, highly mutated lineage of the virus that causes Covid-19. The lineage is named BA.2.86, and has been detected in the United States, Denmark and Israel, the CDC said in a post on messaging platform X.

“As we learn more about BA.2.86, CDC’s advice on protecting yourself from Covid-19 remains the same,” the agency said.

The World Health Organization (WHO) earlier on Thursday said in a post on X that it had classified BA.2.86 as a “variant under monitoring” due to the large number of mutations it carries.

The WHO said that, so far, only a few sequences of the variant have been reported from a handful of countries.

The new lineage, which has 36 mutations from the currently-dominant XBB.1.5 Covid variant “harkens back to an earlier branch” of the virus, explained Dr. S. Wesley Long, medical director of diagnostic microbiology at Houston Methodist.

The Omicron subvariant XBB.1.5 is the strain targeted by vaccines in upcoming Covid booster shots.