International health officials are closely following a new version of COVID-19 as it spreads to more countries. The version, or variant, is called BA.2.86. Officials from the World Health Organization (WHO) say it has already been identified in several countries, including the United States, Switzerland, South Africa, Israel, Denmark and Britain. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus recently spoke to reporters about the latest COVID-19 developments. He said the new COVID-19 variants show that the virus remains a health threat around the world.

随着新版 COVID-19 传播到更多国家，国际卫生官员正在密切关注它。 该版本或变体称为 BA.2.86。世界卫生组织（WHO）官员表示，美国、瑞士、南非、以色列、丹麦和英国等多个国家已发现该病毒。 世卫组织总干事谭德塞最近向记者介绍了 COVID-19 的最新进展。他说，新的 COVID-19 变种表明该病毒仍然对世界各地的健康构成威胁。

Tedros noted the latest data show that COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations are decreasing. But he added that the agency had seen “increasing reports of hospitalizations, ICU admissions and deaths in some countries.” ICU is a short form for the term intensive care unit, part of a hospital that cares for very sick patients. Maria Van Kerkhove is with the WHO’s Health Emergencies Program. She said that, as of last week, only about 10 cases of the BA.2.86 variant had been found worldwide. But Van Kerkhove added that health officials are worried because the variant appears to have more than 30 genetic mutations. She said the WHO is currently trying to closely follow the movements of the latest virus variants. The efforts include taking wastewater samples from different cities to follow where COVID-19 is spreading. In addition, such methods can help officials learn how fast current variants are spreading and how severe they are. “Governments cannot drop the ball,” Van Kerkhove said.

谭德塞指出，最新数据显示，COVID-19 感染和住院人数正在减少。但他补充说，该机构看到“一些国家的住院、重症监护室入院和死亡的报告不断增加”。 ICU 是重症监护病房的缩写，是医院的一部分，专门照顾重症患者。玛丽亚·范·克霍夫 (Maria Van Kerkhove) 参与世界卫生组织卫生紧急项目。她说，截至上周，全球仅发现约10例BA.2.86变种病例。但 Van Kerkhove 补充说，卫生官员对此感到担忧，因为该变种似乎有 30 多种基因突变。她说，世界卫生组织目前正在努力密切跟踪最新病毒变种的动向。这些工作包括从不同城市采集废水样本，以追踪 COVID-19 的传播地点。此外，此类方法可以帮助官员了解当前变种的传播速度和严重程度。 “政府不能丢球，”范科霍夫说。

Health officials say BA.2.86 broke off from the Omicron variant, which has been spreading in the U.S. at least since last year. It was first discovered in Denmark on July 24. Some international scientists have said that while it is important to keep following BA.2.86, the variant was unlikely to cause a new, harmful wave of infections. This is because much of the population has built up defenses against COVID-19 because of vaccinations or previous infection.

卫生官员表示，BA.2.86 与 Omicron 变种分离，该变种至少从去年开始就在美国传播。它于 7 月 24 日在丹麦首次发现。一些国际科学家表示，虽然继续遵循 BA.2.86 很重要，但该变种不太可能引起新的有害感染浪潮。这是因为许多人因接种疫苗或之前感染过而建立了针对 COVID-19 的防御能力。

Scientists are currently testing how effective newly created COVID-19 vaccines will work against BA.2.86. Van Kerkhove noted that in the past, vaccines have been better at preventing severe sickness and death than blocking re-infections. U.S. health officials said earlier this month the latest COVID-19 vaccines are set to be released sometime in September. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) completed a risk report on the new variant last week. The report said BA.2.86 may be capable of causing infection in vaccinated people and those who had COVID-19 before. But officials noted there is so far no evidence that the new variant is causing more severe sickness than earlier ones.

科学家目前正在测试新研制的 COVID-19 疫苗对抗 BA.2.86 的效果如何。范科霍夫指出，过去，疫苗在预防严重疾病和死亡方面比阻止再次感染更有效。美国卫生官员本月早些时候表示，最新的 COVID-19 疫苗将于 9 月某个时候发布。美国疾病控制与预防中心 (CDC) 上周完成了有关新变种的风险报告。该报告称 BA.2.86 可能会导致接种疫苗的人和以前感染过 COVID-19 的人感染。但官员们指出，到目前为止，没有证据表明新变种比以前的变种引起更严重的疾病。

The WHO said COVID-19 testing has dropped by 90 percent worldwide from the highest point of the pandemic. Testing rates have also fallen sharply in the U.S., and genetic sequencing is down by around 90 percent, said Dr. Ashish Jha. He served as the White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator until June 2023. Jha said data from hospital stays, emergency room visits, deaths, wastewater testing and sequencing efforts had given health officials improved information about current virus spread.

世界卫生组织表示，全球范围内的 COVID-19 检测数量较疫情最高点下降了 90%。 Ashish Jha 博士表示，美国的检测率也大幅下降，基因测序下降了约 90%。他担任白宫 COVID-19 应对协调员直至 2023 年 6 月。贾说，来自住院、急诊室就诊、死亡、废水检测和测序工作的数据让卫生官员更好地了解了当前病毒传播的信息。