An outbreak of Covid-19 in a care home in Norfolk at the end of August saw 33 out of 38 residents test positive for the virus, along with 12 members of staff, according to the UK Health Security Agency
A Covid outbreak at a care home which infected 33 residents and 12 staff has experts warning the new BA.2.86 variant – also known as Pirola – is transmissible enough to affect places where people are in close contact with each other.
It is too early to judge the full extent of the coronavirus strain, which was first identified in the UK on August 18, and it has not yet been classed as a variant of concern. But enough unlinked cases of Pirola have been detected in different parts of the country to suggest it is circulating among the community.
An outbreak of Covid-19 in a care home in Norfolk at the end of August saw 33 out of 38 residents test positive for the virus, along with 12 members of staff, according to the UK Health Security Agency. One resident needed hospital treatment but no deaths due to Covid-19 have been reported. Laboratory tests later showed that 22 of the residents had the Pirola variant, along with six members of staff.
The outbreak has been classed as “an early indicator” that the variant may be sufficiently transmissible to have impact in close contact settings, the UKHSA said, though it is “too early” to draw any conclusions about how Pirola will behave in the wider UK population.