A new COVID-19 variant appears to be on its way to taking over in Alberta, with one expert predicting it likely already accounts for the lion’s share of the province’s cases.
JN.1 is an offshoot of BA.2.86, which has evolved, like many of its predecessors, to better evade our immune defences.
It is now the dominant strain in Canada. Data from the Public Health Agency of Canada shows it accounted for about 66 per cent of COVID-19 cases nationwide by the end of December.
Comments closedThe new COVID-19 variant that scientists call JN.1 now makes up about 44.1% of COVID-19 cases across the country, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated Friday, marking another week of the fast-spreading variant’s steep rise in the U.S.
The increase is more than two times larger than the 21.3% that the CDC now estimates the strain made up of infections for the week ending Dec. 9, after Thanksgiving.
Comments closedInfectious diseases expert Dr. Donald Vinh on the high number of viruses circulating in Quebec right now and how people can avoid them.
Comments closedDue to its rapid growth and potential to add to the respiratory virus burden in Northern Hemisphere countries, the World Health Organization (WHO) today designated JN.1, part of the BA.2.86 SARS-CoV-2 lineage, as its own variant of interest.
The announcement came following an assessment from the WHO’s Technical Advisory Group on SARS-CoV-2 evolution.
Comments closedNearly 1 in 10 new COVID-19 cases in the U.S. are from the BA.2.86 variant, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated Monday, nearly triple what the agency estimated the highly mutated variant’s prevalence was two weeks ago.
Comments closedThe World Health Organization (WHO) last week reclassified the Omicron BA.2.86 variant—and its offshoots, including JN.1—as a variant of interest as global proportions grow, including in the United States, where it now makes up about 9% of circulating viruses, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said today.
Comments closedPfizer on Wednesday said the updated Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine expected to be used this fall elicited a strong antibody response against the highly mutated BA.2.86 subvariant of the coronavirus in a preclinical study in mice.
Comments closedHealth Canada is currently reviewing applications for Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech’s new mRNA vaccines, developed against the dominant XBB.1.5 variant ahead of a vaccination campaign set for the fall.
Comments closedThough case reporting doesn’t accurately reflect COVID-19 activity because of decreased testing and reporting, the number reported over the past month increased by 63%, with increased cases reported in three regions, the World Health Organization (WHO) said in its latest weekly update yesterday.
Comments closedA highly mutated form of the coronavirus that threatens to be the most adept yet at slipping past the body’s immune defenses is capturing the attention of virologists and health officials.
Comments closedComments closedWe’re seeing new data all the time on the long-term consequences of infection, whether it’s long COVID or the impact on the heart.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) today issued its initial risk assessment of the BA.2.86 SARS-CoV-2 lineage, which says tests and treatments will likely be effective and that updated vaccines will still be able to reduce severe disease and hospitalizations.
Comments closed“It is unusual for [this virus] to change so significantly and develop 30 new mutations. The last time we saw such a big change was when [Omicron] appeared.”
Comments closedU.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Thursday that it was tracking a new, highly mutated lineage of the virus that causes COVID-19.
Comments closedThe World Health Organization and US health authorities announced on Friday that they were closely monitoring a new variant of the COVID-19 virus, although “for the time being, the potential impact of the many mutations in BA.2.86 is unknown.”
Comments closedThe U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Thursday it is tracking a recently discovered COVID-19 strain, BA.2.86, after a case of the highly mutated variant was discovered in Michigan.
Comments closed
