Reuters file photo
The UK has found 34 confirmed cases of Covid-19 infection by the new, highly mutated Pirola variant, most of them occurring in a single outbreak at a Norfolk care home.
Community transmission of the variant is probably taking place across the country, although it's still unclear if the strain causes more severe disease than previous versions or will become dominant, according to the UK Health Security Agency.
Twenty-eight of the infections occurred at a care home in Norfolk, where staff and residents were asked to test for Covid after an unusually high number of people became ill, the agency said. Whole genome sequencing confirmed that Pirola, officially called BA.2.86, was in the majority of the samples.
So far, five of the 34 people known to be infected in England have been hospitalized and no deaths have been reported.
England has already pulled forward its fall inoculation program for Covid and the flu by a month following detection of the strain. Pirola has more than 30 mutations, which could help the virus latch on to cells and cause infection, potentially making it better at evading immunity from past vaccinations and prior infections.
It's too early to draw conclusions about how Pirola will behave in the wider population, but it's an early indicator that it may be sufficiently transmissible to have an impact in close contact settings, the agency said.
On Thursday, European health officials warned that the variant is circulating on the continent and may be behind an uptick in Covid cases there. Officials from Europe and elsewhere are encouraging countries to redouble vaccination efforts - especially for people at risk of serious illness - as the fall and winter approach in the Northern Hemisphere.
Europe has seen a drop in Covid surveillance efforts this year, potentially making it harder for policymakers to respond quickly to emerging threats from the virus.
