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A total of 42 cases of the supermutated Pirola Covid variant have been detected in the United Kingdom, compared to 36 last week.
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has revealed where in Britain the new Covid variant, scientifically named BA.2.86, has been found.
The east of England had the highest number of cases thanks to a massive outbreak of 28 cases at a care home in Norfolk at the end of August.
Excluding this singular event, London was the UK’s Pirola hotspot, recording six cases, followed by Scotland, which reported five.
Of the 37 cases in England detected up to September 11, seven had been hospitalized, while two were detected among emergency room patients. No deaths have been recorded among those infected.
Separate UKHSA data shows Covid admissions in England have hit a five-month high.
The east of England had the highest number of cases thanks to a massive outbreak of 28 cases at a care home in Norfolk at the end of August.
Globally, more than 100 cases of Pirola have been detected, including Denmark, South Africa and the United States.
Virologists have warned that it is too early to reliably identify specific symptoms, but they could include a runny nose, sore throat and fatigue.
The UKHSA said only two cases found in the community are believed to be linked, suggesting the virus is spreading among the public.
Pirola now accounts for 2.6 per cent of all genetically tested Covid cases in England.
However, UKHSA analysts said there was not yet enough data to estimate the growth rate of the variant.
While the official count of Pirola in the UK is 42, the real total will be higher as it is spreading in the community undetected, experts say.
Britons are no longer mass testing as they did at the beginning of the pandemic, and community testing will end in May 2022.
Confirmed cases are therefore an underestimate of how many Britons are infected with Covid and how many of them have Pirola.
Dr Renu Bindra, incident director at UKHSA, said that while Pirola has a “significant number of mutations” compared to other variants in circulation, the data so far is “too limited to draw firm conclusions” about the impact that this will have
He added: “It is clear that there is some degree of widespread community transmission, both in the UK and globally, and we are working to determine the full extent of this.”
“In the meantime, it remains vital that everyone who is eligible comes forward for the fall vaccine as soon as it is offered.”
Concerns about Pirola and a possible rise in cases led ministers to bring forward the start date of the autumn flu and Covid vaccine rollouts by a whole month.
Pirola, like other recently emerged Covid variants, is a derivative of the Omicron strain.
However, its large number of mutations, 35 in total, raised alarm and some experts feared it was different enough to effectively circumvent the protection offered by Covid vaccines and infection from previous waves.
The UKHSA said it is currently analyzing blood samples taken from NHS workers to test how effective the immune response generated by Covid injections is against Pirola.
Experiments are also underway to determine how effective lateral flow tests are in detecting Pirola.
The UKHSA also confirmed last month that Covid testing and community surveillance would be stepped up again ahead of winter.
Hospital admissions and the number of beds occupied by Covid patients have also increased, with daily Covid hospital admissions up almost 30 per cent since June.
Experts have told MailOnline that current data suggests that while Pirola is more transmissible than its predecessors, it does not appear to be more serious.
While the true prevalence of the virus is unclear, data from the ZOE Covid study, which tracks self-reported infections, suggests there were 100,516 new cases of symptomatic infection on September 12, double the 50,000 reported in early August.
The study, which is based on data from millions of ZOE app users, estimates that around 1.2 million in the UK are currently infected – around one in 57 people.
The figure is the highest in five months, but it is remains far lower than the figure estimated during previous peaks: it reported that 3.8 million people were infected in April 2022.
Meanwhile, separate data from the UKHSA shows that Covid hospitalizations are at their highest level since April.
Admissions among patients who tested positive for the virus rose to 4.6 per 100,000 people in the week to September 10, official figures show.
This is up from 3.7 per 100,000 the previous week and the highest since the week ending April 30.
This is still a fraction of the level reached last winter, when the rate stood at 11.8 per 100,000. It is also well below the numbers seen during the first year of the pandemic.
However, for two months the exchange rate has shown a clear upward trend.
Rates remain highest among people ages 85 and older, at 51.1 per 100,000, and among people ages 75 to 84, at 21.2 per 100,000.
Experts predict Covid cases will continue to rise as the UK heads into autumn and people mix more indoors.
There have been no reported cases of Ice Cold in Wales and Northern Ireland.
More than 100 cases of Pyrola have been detected worldwide, including Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Israel, Japan, Portugal, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden and the United States.