NEW COVID VARIANT SPARKS CONCERN

Monday, September 4, 2023 - 11:17

The emergence of a new variant of coronavirus known as BA.2.86 has raised a flag among some experts. It has just been designated by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as a “variant under monitoring”. The new variant has already been recorded in the United Kingdom but it is not clear whether it has reached Gibraltar.

ALARM
While there is no cause for alarm, the reason for the concern centres on both its potential transmissibility and its potential resistance to immunity. This is because BA.2.86 has mutated considerably with over 30 amino acid changes to its spike protein. The huge drop in testing and monitoring that followed the lockdowns of 2020 and 2021 is making all new variants, including this one, more difficult to track than would have been the case under the previous and more intensive testing arrangements.
REPORTS
There have so far been reports of the new variant in Israel, Denmark, the United Kingdom and the United States. In 2020 Gibraltar managed to stay ahead of the pandemic for a considerable period of time, and although over 100 people here have tragically lost their lives so far, the general consensus among scientists and public health experts is that the crisis was well handled overall.

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04-09-23 PANORAMAdailyGIBRALTAR