The Ministry of Health announced this evening (Thursday) that ten cases of a new variant of the corona virus, based on the delta called AY.3, have been discovered in Israel.
This is a variant that is under worldwide surveillance and has caused infection in several countries, including the United States.
According to the Ministry of Health, eight of those infected are returning from abroad, while the other two have been infected with the new variant in Israel.
The AY.3 variant has risen, according to reports from the Ministry of Health from South America to the southern United States, and is gradually gaining market share even against the original Delta variant - this is usually evidence that it is more contagious.
Representative of the Ministry of Health in Knesset debate: "A new and alarming variant has been revealed that if it arrives in Israel - we will go to the closure" // Photo: Knesset Channel
As the corona spreads, new variants are formed very quickly, until it becomes quite difficult to keep track of them.
To date, the World Health Organization has defined four types of variants as "disturbing": alpha ("British"), beta ("South African"), gamma ("Brazilian") and delta ("Indian"), each with sub-strains.
All delta viruses multiply faster in humans than the corona alpha and previous variants, which means on the one hand that the immune system has less time to respond and then morbidity is more severe, and on the other hand we detect the disease faster after exposure, which can help cut off infection chains. According to the instructions.
What is AY.3 variant?
Dr. Noam Leviathan, a biology doctor from the Madat organization and owner of the Noam - Biological Thoughts blog, explains that the reason for the additional letters, in this case AY.3, is that the varinate has mutations in addition to the mutations from the original Delta.
"It is relevant to evolutionary monitoring of the variants, but as far as is known these mutations do not give it an advantage over the other sub-variants of the other Delta currently circulating in the world, and as far as is known it is no more violent than them," explains Dr. Leviathan.
"Why are there places that claim that AY.3 is scarier than the original Delta? Because they compare it to the Delta in general. Compared to just the Delta that has already 'taken over' the whole world in parallel today, it does not seem to be more threatening than it is."
