The Health Minister for Wales, Eluned Morgan, has cautioned that the country is bracing for another “COVID peak” this winter, emphasising that the latest COVID variant of concern has not been detected in Wales as of yet.
She made these remarks during a discussion on winter healthcare challenges, asserting that this anticipated peak would be influenced by a “number of variants.”
The variant known as BA2.86 has been characterized by experts from NHS England as the most concerning new variant since the initial emergence of Omicron.
Eluned Morgan confirmed to the send that there are no cases in Wales “as yet”.
She went on to say that: “We’re very much hoping to keep an eye on that. Our scientists are very well informed as to how that is progressing with lots of testing being done elsewhere in the UK. I think there’s a bit more confidence that it’s not the variant we thought it might be but it’s still being monitored. But who knows what variants could come up in the winter. We are expecting an uptick and a peak at some point during the winter.”
