UKHSA provides update on Nimbus Covid variant spread
UK public health officials have issued an update about the new Covid variant that appears to be spreading internationally.
The UK Health Security Agency said the NB.1.8.1 variant – sometimes known as Nimbus – had been detected in small numbers in the UK to date.
It has been declared as a variant that is being monitored by the World Health Organisation.
But while cases and hospitalisations are increasing in some countries, there is no data yet that suggests it leads to more severe illness, a UKHSA post said.
The most important step people can take to protect themselves is to take up the offer of vaccination if they are eligible, it added.
It comes as the Government announced it would be following advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation and offering the Covid-19 vaccine this autumn to a smaller at-risk population.
The JCVI announced last year that the Covid vaccine campaigns in 2025 should be restricted to the over-75s, residents of a care home for older adults and those six months and over who are immunosuppressed.
It is a change from last winter’s vaccine campaign when Covid vaccines were available on the NHS for those aged 65 to 75 years and those who were previously deemed to be in a clinical risk group.
Last month, officials said well over half of eligible patients have yet to come forward in the spring booster campaign.
UKHSA said it was continuing to monitor the situation through its surveillance programmes and hospital admissions.
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control also said it was closely monitoring the Omicron-descendant variant NB.1.8.1, which has been associated with a rise in infections in some countries in Asia, including China, Hong Kong and Singapore.
‘No significant impact on severe disease indicators – such as hospital admissions, intensive care unit admissions or deaths – has been observed so far,’ it said in a statement.
But Covid-19 vaccination remains suboptimal in several countries, advising that older adults and other eligible groups keep up with their immunisations as per national guidance, it said.
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READERS' COMMENTS [1]
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I am not surprised patients are failing to uptake the vaccine on offer. It is still an ‘old’ version of the relatively untested mRNA technology, rather than a more traditional technology of which we have more famiiarity, like adsorbed protein vaccie, and does not yet include anti-Nimbus activity, so is less desireable, and potentially has more side effects, as it causes release in body of large quantiites of damaging ‘spike protein’.
We need anti-Nimbus and safe adsorbed protein technology, with rapid inclusion of novel strains, probably every 3-4 months, and reduced transmission measures.