A new coronavirus variant with a “high number of mutations” has been detected in the UK.
A NEW coronavirus variant with a “high number of mutations” has been detected in the UK.
However, Linda Bauld, professor of public health at the University of Edinburgh, has said Scotland is in a “fairly stable position” when it comes to Covid. The agency said it would continue to monitor the spread of the variant closely while checks to determine the risks it may pose continue. “I think a lot of people have just forgotten about Covid. The pandemic is no longer with us but the virus is and it’s going to keep changing, so we are continuing to see new mutations, new variants, coming in – not ones that are causing more severe disease but we need to remember that we don’t have a stable pattern with Covid at the moment. It’s still quite unpredictable.
However it is unlikely to cause a fresh wave of severe disease and deaths, or prompt fresh restrictions on people’s daily lives, because most people have some immunity to the illness.He said: “Even in the worst-case scenario where BA.2.86 caused a major new wave of cases, we are not expecting to witness comparable levels of severe disease and death than we did earlier in the pandemic when the Alpha, Delta or Omicron variants spread.“Even if people get reinfected by BA.2.