Risk of Pirola Covid variant 'quite low' says Cambridge virologist
More than 30 cases of the variant have been detected in England
A virologist believes the most vulnerable people in Cambridgeshire should not be worried by the latest Covid variant despite a rising number of cases.
People most at risk including older people in care homes will be offered a booster jab from this week after the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) confirmed more than 30 cases of the Pirola variant in England.
The adult Covid and flu vaccination programme was meant to start in October but brought forward over concerns on the virus.
Doctor Chris Smith is a consultant virologist at the University of Cambridge:
“The World Health Organisation reported they had a new variant under monitoring,” he said.
“That’s not a variant of concern but it means they’ve picked up a different form of the virus but at the moment, it doesn’t appear to be translating into severe disease or big outbreaks of disease,” he said.
“If it were a very serious threat, as it’s already clearly spread so far around the world, we should have been seeing many cases and we’re not, we’re picking up handfuls of cases here and there.
“The existing immunity we’ve got from having been infected, vaccinated and built population immunity is good enough to defend us and therefore the risk is probably quite low.”
"The potential impact is difficult to estimate"
Pirola, also known as the BA.2.86 variant, has been detected in countries such as the US, Canada and Denmark and in the UK, there are least 34 confirmed cases with 28 of those in a Norfolk care home.
The NHS said it will contact those who are eligible in order of risk.
People in England will be able to book their jabs through the NHS website, the NHS app or by calling 119 from September 18.
Dame Jenny Harries, chief executive of the UKHSA, said:
“This precautionary measure to bring forward the autumn programme will ensure these people have protection against any potential wave this winter.
“There is limited information available at present on BA.2.86 so the potential impact of this particular variant is difficult to estimate.
“We will continue to monitor BA.2.86 and to advise government and the public as we learn more; in the meantime, please come forward for the vaccine when you are called.”
According to the NHS, last winter 17 million Covid jabs were delivered while 8 million Covid vaccines were given in October. vaccinations were in the month of October, making it by far the most popular month.
And Dr Smith, who also hosts the Naked Scientists Podcast, supports the idea of bringing this year’s vaccination programme forward.
“Because it may have the potential to cause problems, the government are starting to offer people to have flu and Covid jabs to build immunity sooner so if this does turn into a problem, we’re ready to solve the problem,” he said.
“We don’t know at this stage (if Covid booster will help cut transmission rate), but what we can do is based on the level of immunity provided by these vaccines, it’s promising.”
Those who are eligible for a Covid jab this autumn include:
- residents in a care home for older adults
- all adults aged 65 years and over
- persons aged 6 months to 64 years in a clinical risk group
- frontline health and social care workers
- persons aged 12 to 64 years who are household contacts of people with immunosuppression
- persons aged 16 to 64 years who are carers and staff working in care homes for older adults