However, the number of hospitalized patients has decreased in recent days.
Inside Israeli Innovation with Maayan Hoffman and Zachy Hennessey, Ep. 19
The world's response to the latest pandemic and the social rifts created concern him more.
The WHO said that, so far, only a few sequences of the variant named BA.2.86 have been reported from a handful of countries.
The significance of the variant is still unclear as other heavily mutated variants have often fizzled out.
The strain was found in 36 countries. Eighteen Israelis have been infected so far.
Patient Zero is likely experiencing symptoms that could be confused with IBD or chronic diarrhea.
The WHO called the new COVID variant "one to watch" and is monitoring the new variant, which has been dubbed Arcturus as it continues to spread.
Analysis of the 413 new sequences revealed they all belong to existing, known COVID-19 strains.
A mutation in the new variant allows it to spread better than its forebears, but can still avoid antibodies well.