The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) announced Saturday that a new Covid-19 variant has been identified in the country and also detected in the United States, Denmark and Israel.

The agency published an initial risk assessment of the SARS-CoV-2 variant BA.2.86, which was detected in the UK on Friday, and has been designated as V-23AUG-01 for the purpose of monitoring.

The agency said there was one confirmed case in the UK in an individual with no recent travel record, "which suggests there is a degree of community transmission in the UK".

However, it said, identifying the extent of transmission needs further investigation, and that there is currently insufficient data to assess the relative severity of the variant.