Forbes Pirola, or BA.2.86, is the third most prevalent Covid strain in the U.S., and although there may be concerns the new monovalent vaccines—which protect against the XBB lineage that Pirola isn’t a part of—don’t offer protection against Pirola and its subvariants, drugmakers and the CDC are sure the vaccines offer defense.
Pirola made up 8.8% of cases as of November 25, almost triple the number of cases the variant made up during the previous two-week period ending on November 11, when Pirola wasn’t even one of the top five most prevalent variants, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
It’s circulating the most in the Northeast, where it’s the second most common variant in the region (13%) after HV.1.
Pirola joined four other variants as “variants of interest” by the World Health Organization on Monday, a step up from its “variant under monitoring” label in August.