US lab tests suggest new Covid-19 variant BA.2.86 may be less contagious and less immune-evasive than feared | CNN Scientists around the world are fast-tracking lab experiments to try to understand the highly mutated BA.2.86 variant of the new coronavirus. Brenda Goodman CNN

Two teams of US scientists have completed lab experiments testing the antibodies from vaccinated and infected Americans to see how well they might be able to fend off currently circulating variants of the virus that causes Covid-19, including the highly mutated BA.2.86.

...

COVID EG.5 Variant Symptoms Experts Say You Need to Watch For Reports suggest that the new EG.5 COVID variant may be more transmissible than previous ones. Learn about the "Eris" symptoms and its transmission. Yahoo Life

...

Jill Biden, 72, has tested positive for Covid and is experiencing mild symptoms, the White House said in a statement.

Case counts are rising across the US, and public health experts are monitoring a worrisome new variant.

Doctors warned that the BA.2.86 variant – unofficially called “Pirola” – may be cause for concern as it is a newly-designated, highly-mutated variant of Omicron which triggered a surge in cases in a number of countries including the US.

It seems like everyone has Covid-19. Here’s why this wave is probably worse than official data suggests | CNN Covid-19 certainly didn’t take a vacation this summer. Virus levels in the US have been on the rise for weeks, but it’s hard to know exactly how widely it’s spreading. CNN

...

EU authorises use of adapted Pfizer/BioNtech vaccine for COVID-19 variant The European Commission has authorised an updated COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer and its German partner BioNtech to be used in EU countries' vaccination campaigns this autumn to target the dominant Omicron XBB.1.5 variant, it said on Friday. Reuters Reuters

...

'The pandemic is not over': Experts expect a surge in COVID cases this fall | CBC News Higher COVID-19 levels seen in Ottawa in the past month are expected to continue to rise through the fall, public health experts warn. CBC

...

Ottawa's medical officer of health Vera Etches confirmed Thursday these trends will increase in the coming months, but said it's not yet clear that subvariants are driving the surge. 

Limited data suggest rising global COVID-19 activity The WHO said today it will shift its global COVID roundups from weekly updates to monthly reports. CIDRAP

hough 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. ...

CDC updates BA.2.86 assessment as countries report more sequences Inserm/Flickr cc CIDRAP

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) yesterday updated its initial assessment of the highly mutated BA.2.86 SARS-CoV-2 variant, which said sporadic detections continue to be reported at the global level, including in the United States, where it has been picked up by three different genomic monitoring systems.

...

UK health officials bring forward autumn flu and Covid vaccinations Move in England comes after detection of highly-mutated coronavirus variant that is spreading around the world The Guardian

...