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Israel’s Ministry of Health announced that it has recorded multiple cases of the new strain, which combines the two sub-variants - dubbed BA.1 and BA.2 - during PCR testing of passengers arriving at the Ben Guiron airport.
Health officials in Israel said that “the variant is still unknown around the world,” according to a statement released by the Ministry of Health.
"The two cases of the combined strain, which have been discovered so far, suffered from mild symptoms of fever, headaches, and muscle dystrophy, and do not require a special medical response.”
According to reports, at least one woman who tested positive for the variant also infected a baby and her parents.
The Ministry said it will continue to closely monitor the situation, noting that there has been ongoing research and testing of the new variant with vaccines appearing to be equally as effective in combating it as other COVID-19 strains.
“It’s likely that they were infected before boarding the flight in Israel. The variant could have emerged here,” Health Ministry Director-General Nachman Ash said this week to 103FM radio. “We don’t know what it means yet.”
The new strain in Israel comes as COVID-19 numbers overseas are on the rise, including in the UK, where new infections were up 48 percent, and hospitalizations jumping 17 percent jump week-to week.
More than half of the countries in the European Union have also seen daily cases spiking, including a surge of 48 percent in the Netherlands and 20 percent in Germany over the past week, according to Johns Hopkins University.
According to the Isreal Ministry of Health, of the limited number of cases of the new virus being recorded, some have been in people traveling to the country from Europe, and there is no communal spread.
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