Santé Publique France indicated on Thursday that the new variant of Covid-19, BA.2.86, carefully monitored by the WHO, was detected for the first time in France. The WHO decided to classify it in the category of variants under surveillance because of the very large number of mutations of the Spike gene that it carries.
The new variant of Covid-19, BA.2.86, carefully monitored by the WHO, was detected for the first time in France, Public Health France told AFP on Thursday, confirming information from the Parisian. This member of the Omicron family is particularly scrutinized because of a “greater number of mutations”, making it “likely to evolve more significantly and to spread more easily”, recalled last week the president of the Committee monitoring and anticipating health risks (Covars) Brigitte Autran.
Nicknamed “Pirola”
This case of a variant was detected in the Grand Est, said Public Health France, stressing that it had “launched an investigation to collect epidemiological information to document this first case”. This variant had been detected so far in several countries, including the United States, Denmark or Israel, but not yet in France. The WHO has decided to classify this new variant, nicknamed “Pirola” on social networks, in the category of variants under surveillance because of the very large number (more than 30) of mutations of the Spike gene that it carries.
It is the Spike protein that gives the virus its spiky appearance and is what allows SARS-CoV-2 to enter host cells. Even if BA.2.86 caused a major spike in infections, “we don’t expect to see comparable levels of severe illness and death to what we did earlier in the pandemic when the Alpha, Delta, or Omicron have spread,” recently commented François Balloux, who heads the chair of bioinformatics at University College London.