Is the Pirola just another ‘scariant’? Covid strain not linked to serious illness and jabs expected to hold up against infection, health chiefs say

Pirola could be no more cause for concern than the number of other Covid variants spreading, scientists at the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) have suggested.

‘Encouraging’ laboratory tests show that immunity provided by jabs and previous infections are still likely to protect against the heavily mutated strain, the agency said today.

And health chiefs said there is ‘no evidence’ so far that the variant, scientifically called BA.2.86, is more likely to cause serious illness than other Omicron spin-off strains.

While some tests suggest the Pirola may be better at infecting people than other current Covid variants, this ‘small difference’ is unlikely to cause a dramatic rise in cases, experts told MailOnline.

The analysis, published today in a UKHSA report, confirmed that the total number of cases in Britain had risen to 54 by September 18 – an increase of 12 in a week.

Of these cases, 10 have been hospitalized, although no deaths have yet been reported.

However, health officials said that because many cases have only been spotted incidentally in people routinely tested in hospital, this data cannot be used to calculate how likely the variant is to make someone seriously ill.

Pirola caused alarm in some quarters when it burst onto the scene last month due to its highly mutated nature.

This series of genetic changes led to fears that it could be so radically different that it would be able to evade the protection offered by jabs and previous infections by other Covid strains.

UKHSA laboratory analysis, published today, suggests that Pirola appears to have a greater ability to infect human cells than other currently circulating Omicron lineages.

However, separate tests – which measured how effective people’s current Covid antibodies, the part of the immune system that targets the virus, are against Priola – were encouraging.

This showed that Pirola had no greater ability to evade humans’ antibodies than XBB.1.5, also called Kraken, a fellow descendant of Omicron.

Kraken came to worldwide attention earlier this year as possibly the next big Covid variant. But it now represents just one in 20 cases in Britain.

UKHSA’s chief medical adviser, Professor Susan Hopkins, initially said the data was ‘encouraging’.

She said: ‘Although this is still very early data and more research is needed before we can be sure, it is encouraging to see an initial indication that BA.2.86 is showing similar levels of antibody escape compared to other variants circulating in Britain.

‘The available data is too limited to draw any conclusions about the severity of the disease it causes, but there is no evidence so far that it is more likely to make people seriously ill than other Omicron variants in circulation.’

She added that the data was another reason to take part in the NHS Covid vaccination programme, which was accelerated due to concerns about Pirola and winter pressures.

“The autumn vaccination program started this month and this new data shows once again how important it is that the most vulnerable among us are fully vaccinated to get the greatest possible protection,” she said.

“I urge everyone who is eligible to come forward for their next dose as soon as they are called.”

Dr. Simon Clarke, a cellular microbiologist from the University of Reading, said that while it is still “early days”, the data suggests Pirola is no worse than other circulating variants.

He said: ‘A number of studies indicate that it may not be any better at escaping the immunity currently in the population than the other currently circulating versions of Covid.

‘While these are fairly preliminary studies, the signs are encouraging.

‘Based on data from two different research teams, it appears that BA.2.86 sticks to our cells slightly better when we become infected, but such small differences often do not translate into real effects.’

Of the 54 known cases of Pirola in Great Britain, 48 have been reported in England, the rest in Scotland.

The vast majority of cases in England stem from a single mass outbreak of 30 cases in a Norfolk care home in late August.

Of the remaining 18, seven were in London, three in the North West, two in the North East and one each in the East of England, the South East, the South West and the West Midlands.

But with Covid testing and genomic analysis of virus samples having been massively scaled back in Britain since the height of the Covid pandemic, there are likely many more cases of the virus spreading in the community.

Globally, 137 Priola cases have been identified in 15 countries.

These include Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Israel, Japan, Portugal, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the US.

Wastewater samples in Thailand are also positive for Pirola.

The autumn Covid vaccine rollout began last week, with care home residents and housebound people being the first to receive additional Covid and flu jabs.

People aged 65 and over, frontline health and social care workers and informal carers are also eligible for Covid and flu vaccines.

People aged 6 months to 64 years in a clinical risk group are also invited.

This group includes people with chronic respiratory, heart, kidney or liver disease, as well as people with diabetes, pregnant women and people with morbid obesity.

GP practices and other local NHS services are also contacting people to offer the vaccines.

Covid hospital admissions in England rose to their highest level in four months earlier this month, with 3,297 people admitted in the week ending September 8.

According to the latest available data, admissions fell slightly to 2,767 in the week to September 15.

The figure is still higher than that of June, July and August, when the number of weekly admissions fell to just 757.

But it is still a far cry from the darkest days of the Covid pandemic, when as many as 26,000 admissions were recorded per week in England.