In the last reporting period between July 17 and August 13, World Health Organisation in a statement revealed that more than 1.4 million new cases of COVID-19 were detected and more than 2,300 deaths were reported.

Reacting to the new development of the virus, WHO and the United States Health Authorities said Friday that they are closely monitoring a new variant of COVID-19.

The World Health Organisation classified the new variant as one under surveillance “due to the large number (more than 30) of spike gene mutations it carries”, it wrote in a bulletin about the pandemic.

So far, the variant has only been detected in Israel, Denmark, and the United States.

Similarly, the US Centers for Disease Control confirmed it is also closely monitoring the variant, in a message on the social platform X, formerly known as Twitter.

There are only four known sequences of the variant, the WHO has said.

“The potential impact of the BA.2.86 mutations are presently unknown and undergoing careful assessment,” the WHO said.

Access24 reports that as of August 13, there were more than 769 million cases of COVID-19 confirmed and more than 6.9 million deaths worldwide, although the real toll is expected to be much higher because many cases went undetected.