WHO is tracking BA.2.86 variant of coronavirus, which has a “large number of mutations”.

The virus SARS-CoV-2 It continues its expansion in the world, creating new variants. The World Health Organization (WHO) constantly monitors and classifies them according to the risk they may pose to global health.

At the time, this classification was given between variants of interest or concern. Due to the expansion of the Omicron variant and its sublines, the guidelines have been updated to maintain only the interesting variants and those with low monitoring.

The number of COVID-19 cases has increased by 80% worldwide in the past month, but the death rate has fallen

On Thursday, the World Health Organization (WHO) added BA.2.86 to the variant within this second classification. Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO technical chief for Covid-19, released the decision, warning that limited information is still available.

The organization explained that only three sequences are available for this variant, but it has been added to the list due to the large number of identified mutations.

“The virus continues to evolve and more variants will emerge. We need better surveillance to detect known variants and detect new ones,” Van Kerkhove said a day before the statement.

World Health Organization declares Eris, the new strain of covid sweeping the US and UK, as a ‘variant of interest’

The first cases of this variant were reported in Denmark and Israel and it was found to have more than 30 mutations in the spike protein, the Daily Mail noted.

Although it has no name yet, the variant is also referred to as BA.X.

Dr. Trisha Greenhalgh, a primary care expert, said earlier this week that it may be time to start wearing masks again.

Currently there are supervised variants:

While the variants of interest are XBB.1.5, XBB.1.16, and EG.5, the latter is also known as Eris.

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