New coronavirus variants have raised concern across the world amid a rise in cases in the United States and parts of Europe.
The BA.2.86 variant, nicknamed “Pirola”, is a newly designated, highly mutating variant of Omicron which triggered the surge in cases.
A smaller wave of COVID-19 cases has meanwhile been fuelled by the newest dominant variant EG.5, or “Eris”.
Pirola has more than 30 mutations, which according to Scott Roberts, Yale Medicine infectious diseases specialist, is “notable”.
“When we went from [Omicron variant] XBB.1.5 to [Eris] EG.5, that was maybe one or two mutations,” he was quoted in the Yale Medicine bulletin as saying. “But these massive shifts, which we also saw from Delta to Omicron, are worrisome.”
EG.5 is a descendant of the Omicron variant and has one notable mutation that helps it to evade antibodies developed by the immune system in response to earlier variants and vaccines.
Post from www.aljazeera.com