The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are monitoring a new strain of COVID-19 after the first case in the United States was detected this week in Michigan.
Seven cases of the highly mutated BA.2.86 strain have been found worldwide including one case in Washtenaw County, according to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. The person with the BA.2.86 case is an older adult with mild symptoms.
“Based on the available evidence, it is not known yet what risks, if any, this may pose to the public’s health beyond what has been seen with other currently circulating lineages,” said a statement from Chelsea Wuth, a spokesperson for the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.
Wuth says state health officials are working the CDC to gather more information about the new strain.
The World Health Organization flagged the BA.2.86 strain as a “variant under monitoring” on Thursday, Aug. 17 “due to the large number of mutations it carries,” an announcement said. The agency said more data will be needed to understand the scope of this virus strain “but the number of mutations warrants attention.”
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Additional cases were identified in Israel, Denmark and the United Kingdom this week according to GISAID, a global virus tracker.
“Public health agencies continue to investigate cases and test available specimens to understand the spread of COVID-19 in the population. The University of Michigan and the State of Michigan both sequence COVID-19 viruses to detect new variants, which is how this variant was identified,” Wuth said.
Health experts say the BA.2.86 mutations are similar in size to those that led to Omicron, which became the dominant strain last fall. But Jesse Bloom, a virologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, said in a slideshow even if a “highly mutated new variant” 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.”
Michigan last reported cases of COVID-19 are increasing but still remain low.
There was a daily average of 1.5 hospital admissions per 100,000 people, which is higher than the previous week but much lower than peaks of 40 admissions. Case rates are on the rise, the state reported in an Aug. 15 update, but the levels are near lows not seen since March 2020.
The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services encourages people to test for COVID-19 when they are feeling sick. The state also urges residents to keep up to date with their COVID-19 vaccine as a defense against serious illness and hospitalization.
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