A photo taken in the late hours of August 17, 2020 shows a sign of the World Health Organization at their headquarters in Geneva amid the COVID-19 outbreak, caused by the novel coronavirus.
The WHO classified the new variant as one under surveillance “due to the large number of spike gene mutations it carries”, it wrote in a bulletin about the pandemic late Thursday.The US Centers for Disease Control confirmed it is also closely monitoring the variant, in a message on the social platform X, formerly known as Twitter.“The potential impact of the BA.2.86 mutations are presently unknown and undergoing careful assessment,” the WHO said.
In the last reporting period between July 17 and August 13, more than 1.4 million new cases of Covid-19 were detected and more than 2,300 deaths reported, according to a WHO statement. The case load represents a rise by 63 percent from the previous 28-day period while deaths were down by 56 percent. As of August 13, there were more than 769 million cases of COVID-19 and more than 6.9 million deaths worldwide, although the real toll is expected to be much higher because many cases went undetected.