The Public Health Agency of Canada is tracking a new, highly mutated variant of the virus that causes COVID-19 which has been detected in at least four countries, Health Canada says, but no cases have been detected in Canada so far.
The World Health Organization said this week it had classified BA.2.86 a “variant under monitoring” due to the “large number of mutations identified.” Cases have been identified in the U.S., Denmark, the U.K. and Israel, though fewer than 10 confirmed cases have been reported worldwide as of Friday.
“Public Health Agency of Canada scientists, along with national and international experts, are actively monitoring and evaluating BA.2.86 lineages and their associated studies,” a Health Canada spokesperson told Global News in a statement.
As of Friday, “there have been no detections of the BA.2.86 lineage in Canada,” spokesperson Anna Maddison said.
The WHO characterizes a “variant under monitoring” as one that shows early signs of “growth advantage” compared to more dominant circulating variants that requires further evidence of its potential impact, according to updated guidance released Thursday.
The global health agency said on social media that more data is needed to understand BA.2.86, but added the number of mutations “warrants attention.”
Mutations can allow the SARS-CoV-2 virus to be more transmissible and evade antibodies contained in vaccines, depending on the evolution of the variant.
Countries that have reported cases have all noted that BA.2.86 has mutated enough that it appears “distant” from its likely parents, including the currently-dominant XBB.1.5 variant of Omicron, which itself was much more transmissible and deadly than the original strain of SARS-CoV-2.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed to Global News the “distinct” variant has been detected in the country. Epidemiologists have reported the initial case was confirmed by a lab in Michigan.
“Based on the available evidence, we do not yet know what risks, if any, this may pose to the public’s health beyond what has been seen with other currently circulating lineages,” a spokesperson said in a statement.
In the U.K., the Health Security Agency said Friday it had detected one case in an individual with no recent travel history, “which suggests a degree of community transmissibility within the U.K.”
Denmark’s Statens Serum Institut said Friday that three cases of BA.2.86 have been detected in the country so far. The cases were reported in different parts of Denmark and did not appear to have had contact with each other, it said.
Dr. Morten Rasmussen, a senior researcher at the institute, said the number of mutations detected in the variant was “unusual” for the virus.
“The last time we saw such a big change was when Omicron appeared,” he was quoted as saying in a press statement.
Israel’s health ministry has so far not publicized any information about the new variant, but the detection of at least one case in that country has been confirmed by the WHO, the U.S. CDC, Statens Serum Institut and the U.K. health ministry.
Early analysis indicates that the new variant “will have equal or greater escape than XBB.1.5 from antibodies elicited by pre-Omicron and first-generation Omicron variants,” Jesse Bloom, a virologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center said in a slide deck published on Thursday.
Bloom’s slides note that the most likely scenario is that BA.2.86 is less transmissible than current dominant variants, so never spreads widely, but more sequencing data is needed.
Canada is already monitoring the spread of another new notable COVID-19 variant, dubbed EG.5, Health Canada confirmed earlier this month.
— with files from Global’s Katherine Ward and Reuters