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News > WebMD Health News


CDC TRACKING NEW COVID STRAIN

Ralph Ellis

August 21, 2023


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The CDC is tracking a newly discovered strain of COVID-19 called BA.2.86.

On Thursday, the agency posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, that the lineage
has been detected in the United States, Denmark, and Israel. 



"As we learn more about BA.2.86, CDC's advice on protecting yourself from
COVID-19 remains the same," the CDC said on X. 

A case of BA.2.86 was detected at a laboratory at the University of Michigan,
CBS News reported. It's not clear how the university obtained the sample that
was sequenced. A case was also detected in the United Kingdom, the news outlet
said. 



The World Health Organization is also tracking BA.2.86 and has classified it as
a "variant under monitoring." 

SUGGESTED for you




"More data are needed to understand this #COVID19 variant and the extent of its
spread, but the number of mutations warrants attention. WHO will update
countries and the public as we learn more," the WHO said on X.

The strain is so new that scientists don't know if BA.2.86 is more easily
spread, causes more severe symptoms than existing strains, or will be more
resistant to vaccines and natural immunity developed over the last few years. 

Early research indicates BA.2.86 "will have equal or greater escape than XBB.1.5
from antibodies elicited by pre-Omicron and first-generation Omicron variants,"
Jesse Bloom, PhD, a virologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, said in a
slide deck published Thursday. (XBB.1.5 is the Omicron subvariant that is
targeted in the updated COVID booster shot to be released soon.)



Still, Bloom noted that "even if a highly mutated new variant like BA.2.86
starts to spread, we will be in a far better place than we were in 2020 and
2021, since most people have some immunity to SARS-CoV-2 now."


SOURCES

X, formerly known as Twitter: @CDCgov, Aug. 17, 2023; @WHO, Aug. 17, 2023.

CBS News: "CDC tracking new COVID variant BA.2.86 after highly-mutated strain
reported in Michigan."



Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center: "Phenotypic assessment of spike mutations in
BA.2.86 (new highly mutated BA.2 variant)."


 * 138
 * 182
   



Credits:

Lead image: Uma Shankar Sharma/Getty Images

WebMD Health News © 2023 


Cite this: CDC Tracking New COVID Strain - Medscape - Aug 21, 2023.

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