WHO, US health authorities track new Covid-19 variant

GENEVA, Switzerland: The World Health Organization and US health authorities said Friday they are closely monitoring a new variant of Covid-19, although the potential impact of BA.2.86 is currently unknown.

The WHO classified the new variant as one under surveillance “due to the large number (more than 30) of spike gene mutations it carries,” it wrote in a bulletin about the pandemic late Thursday.

So far, the variant has only been detected in Israel, Denmark and the United States.

The US Centers for Disease Control confirmed it is also closely monitoring the variant, in a message on the social platform X, formerly known as Twitter.

There are only four kn