Health authorities are not concerned about serious illness “at this stage,” but Health Ministry Director-General Nachman Ash said the significance of the new variant is still unknown.
By Maayan Hoffman, JNS.org
A never-before-seen variant of the Coronavirus has been discovered in Israel, the country’s Health Ministry announced on Wednesday.
The variant, a combination of Omicron BA.1 and BA.2, was discovered in two PCR samples via genetic sequencing in recent days, the ministry said in a statement.
“This combination strain has yet to be seen anywhere else in the world,” according to the ministry, though the two cases were individuals who entered Israel from abroad and were tested at Ben-Gurion Airport.
“The concept of combination variants is well known,” Israel’s coronavirus commissioner, professor Salman Zarka, told Army Radio. “At this stage, we are not concerned about serious illness,” he added.
The two individuals in whose samples the strain had been identified suffered from mild symptoms of fever, headache and muscle aches, and did not require any special medical treatment, according to the Health Ministry.
The ministry’s announcement came after KAN News reported on Tuesday night that a “Deltacron” variant had entered Israel.
“We found a combination of the original Omicron with BA.2,” Health Ministry Director-General Nachman Ash told Israel Radio on Wednesday morning. “It is not ‘Deltacron.’ We do not yet know the significance of the new variant,” he said.
He added that it was probable that the individuals were infected before boarding their flight to Israel, though “it could be a variant created by us.”
The Health Ministry and the government have been concerned about a new outbreak in recent weeks, as the COVID virus’s reproduction or “R” rate has been rising.
In addition, cases have been rising again in several other parts of the world, including Hong Kong, Germany and Britain.
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett was expected to hold consultations on Wednesday with Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz and other senior ministry officials to evaluate the situation in the country.