CDC Data Confirms Covid-19 Hospital Admissions Climb Per Capita
Jill Biden, 72, has tested positive for Covid and is experiencing mild symptoms, the White House said in a statement. President Joe Biden tested negative for the virus, a separate statement said.
Case counts are rising across the US, and public health experts are monitoring a worrisome new variant.
Doctors warned that the BA.2.86 variant – unofficially called “Pirola” – may be cause for concern as it is a newly-designated, highly-mutated variant of Omicron which triggered a surge in cases in a number of countries including the US.
According to a Thursday bulletin in Yale Medicine, the new variant has more than 30 mutations to its spike protein - located on the outer surface of a coronavirus - which helps it enter and infect human cells.
“Such a high number of mutations is notable,” infectious disease specialist Dr Scott Roberts said. “When we went from [Omicron variant] XBB.1.5 to [Eris] EG.5, that was maybe one or two mutations.
“But these massive shifts, which we also saw from Delta to Omicron, are worrisome.”
CDC Covid tracker
15,067 hospitalisations from 13 August to 19 August
