Norfolk care home: New variant BA.2.86 behind Covid outbreak with 28 infected - what is it & symptoms

A new Covid variant currently spreading in England is behind an outbreak at a care home in Norfolk, UK health officials have confirmed. The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said 34 confirmed cases of BA.2.86 had been identified in England as of September 4, with 28 cases were from a single outbreak at the care home. No deaths have been reported so far.

However, UKHSA said it is “too early” to draw conclusions on whether the current variant is more aggressive or serious than past variants as there is currently not enough data to conclude what the extent of the transmission might be.

Norfolk County Council has been offering infection advice and support to the care home where there has been an outbreak. Staff and residents were asked to have tests when an unusually high number of people became unwell, the health officials said.

Positive samples were then sent for lab analysis, where BA.2.86 was confirmed in the majority of samples. The UKHSA said this is “an early indicator” that it may be “sufficiently transmissible to have impact in close contact settings. This variant has been detected in a number of countries globally.

Dr Renu Bindra, Incident Director, UKHSA said: “While BA.2.86 has a significant number of mutations to the viral genome compared to other currently circulating COVID-19 variants, the data so far is too limited to draw firm conclusions about the impact this will have on the transmissibility, severity or immune escape properties of the virus.