UK Resilience

UK posts initial COVID-19 BA.2.86 risk assessment Officials say the rapid appearance in multiple countries in people without travel histories suggests established international spread. CIDRAP

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The newly identified variant has many genetic mutations and is distant from BA.2, its likely ancestor, and currently circulating XBB variants. The similarity of the sequences so far—six samples from four countries—suggests relatively recent emergence and rapid growth, but the HSA said it has low confidence in that assessment, pending the examination of further sequences.

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Heart attack hospitalisations at record level since pandemic Record numbers of people have been hospitalised with heart attacks in the wake of the pandemic, official figures show. Yahoo News

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The new figures for England show that more than 84,000 patients were admitted to hospital because of a heart attack in 2021/22 – a rise of more than 7,000 in a year.

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UK releases recommendations for fall COVID boosters Drazen Zigic/iStock CIDRAP

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In its announcement today, the UK's Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunization (JCVI) detailed the people who will be eligible to receive the vaccine in the fall—those most likely to benefit from vaccination. Aside from those ages 65 and older, the list includes people in nursing facilities and their caregivers, people ages 6 months to 64 who are in clinical risk groups, people ages 12 to 64 who are family contacts of immunocompromised people, and frontline health and social care workers.

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