Covid again
31 August 2023
The reason for starting this blog back in 2020 was to report on the Covid-19 pandemic and its impact on the tool hire industry, so I feel obliged to report that a new variant has been discovered that is being closely monitored by the World Health Organization.
Thankfully, however, it’s not thought that BA.2.86 will become a variant of concern although, as testing for the virus has been scaled back worldwide, information about its ability to spread is not yet clear.
It has already been found in a number of countries including the US, Canada, Denmark and Israel, with cases also reported in England and Scotland.
The UK government has brought forward its Covid and flu vaccination programme for at-risk groups to start on 11 September, having originally been planned for October, while Scotland’s was already scheduled to start on 4 September.
The Guardian quoted Prof Francois Balloux, Director of the UCL Genetics Institute, saying that BA.2.86 was the most striking Covid strain since the emergence of Omicron.
According to the latest risk assessment by UKHSA, the UK Health Security Agency, BA.2.86 has a high number of mutations. It believes that speeding up autumn vaccinations programme will deliver greater protection, supporting those at greatest risk of severe illness and reducing the potential impact on the NHS.
Dame Jenny Harries, Chief Executive of UKHSA, said: “As we continue to live with Covid-19 we expect to see new variants emerge. Thanks to the success of our vaccine programme, we have built strong, broad immune defences against new variants throughout the population.”
She added, “There is limited information available at present on BA.2.86 so the potential impact of this particular variant is difficult to estimate. As with all emergent and circulating Covid-19 variants - both in the UK and internationally - we will continue to monitor BA.2.86 and to advise government and the public as we learn more.”
And the key point to remember is that we have vaccines available and scientists have demonstrated that they can be developed in the laboratory with remarkable speed.
So we will continue to live with the virus and go about our normal business.
Photo: PIRO
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