Growing ‘Pirola’ worries as teaching union warns over long Covid

With concerns growing about the possible impact of the ‘Pirola’ variant of Covid-19 this autumn, a teaching union has called for those affected by long Covid not to be forgotten.

The number of people admitted to hospital with Covid-19 in England has reached its highest rate in three months, figures released this month have shown.

The UK Health Security Agency has also warned that the BA.2.86 variant of Covid-19, nicknamed ‘Pirola’, is now likely to be spreading across the UK.

The variant, which contains many mutations to the spike gene and was first detected in Denmark in late July, has been identified in several countries, including Canada, Israel, Portugal, South Africa, and Sweden, as well as the UK and the US.

The UKHSA said it had detected 34 cases in England to 4 September, of which five people were admitted to hospital. Notably, 28 of these came from a single outbreak in a Norfolk care home.

However, the agency has also said that there is currently “not enough evidence to know if the variant has altered clinical severity or will predominate in the UK.”

This year’s autumn NHS Covid vaccination programme has been brought forward as a result, but will still be limited to those most at risk and the over-65s rather than, as last year, the whole population aged over 55.

Against this backdrop, the teaching union the NASUWT has emphasised that those with long Covid, or lingering or long-term health effects from a bout of the virus, must not be forgotten or overlooked.

In a motion to the TUC Congress in Liverpool, the union has called for long Covid to be legally recognised as a disability under the Equality Act of 2010.

It has also highlighted that teachers are among the groups of workers most likely to be affected by long Covid, with the union as a result calling for reasonable adjustments, flexible working and financial compensation for teachers left unable to teach as a result of contracting Covid at work.

Jane Peckham, NASUWT deputy general secretary, said: “The pandemic may be over, but long Covid sufferers are living with its effects every day.

“Better provision for those living with long-term disabilities and health conditions is just one of the many lessons that need to be learned from the pandemic,” she added.