A new Covid variant dubbed the ‘real deal’ is already in the UK, health officials confirmed today.

One case of the Omicron spin off — given the placeholder name BA.X, or BA.2.86 — has been detected in London. 

It comes less than a day after the World Health Organization (WHO) revealed it was officially tracking the variant. 

The strain is now classified as a ‘currently circulating variant under monitoring’ by the UN health agency.

Alarm bells over the strain were first rung earlier this week, after a prominent online virus-tracker spotted cases initially crop up in Denmark. 

The discovery came just a day after the same lineage was detected in Israel.

One case of the Omicron spin off — given the placeholder name as BA.X but yet to be officially designated — has reportedly been confirmed in London

Yesterday variant trackers online also suggested a fourth case had been spotted in Michigan. 

Some scientists have already called for the return of face masks because of the spin-off strain.

Others, however, have warned it is far too early to panic and stressed that lockdown-era restrictions won’t be needed. 

Dr Meera Chand, deputy director of the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) told MailOnline: “We are aware that BA.2.86 has been detected in the UK. 

‘UKHSA is assessing the situation and will provide further information in due course.”

Dr Luke Blagdon Snell, a physician specialising in infectious diseases and microbiology, in a tweet also claimed a patient had reportedly been hospitalised at Guys and St Thomas’ Hospital in London with the ‘highly mutated’ strain. 

Samples of the variant have been sent to School of Immunology & Microbial Sciences at King’s College London, he added. 

The infection had been acquired ‘locally’ he said and later added there was no ‘immediately obvious’ connection between the cases reported in Denmark, Israel and the US. 

A process called ‘sequencing’ allows scientists to find the exact genetic make-up of every virus sample.

Early tests show BA.X carries more than 30 mutations in its spike protein, the part of the virus that latches onto human cells and causes an infection.

This is the same piece of the virus that vaccines are designed to target.

Several have unknown functions but others are thought to help the virus evade the immune system. 

Yesterday, Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, an epidemiologist and lead for the Covid response at the WHO, cautioned there is very limited information available on the strain.

But she said it needs monitoring due to its large number of mutations.

Surveillance and sequencing is ‘critical’ to detect new variants and track known ones, she added. 

Reports of the first UK case also come amid a surge in cases of the virus, triggering fears of a fresh wave as Britain heads into the autumn and winter when the NHS is busiest. 

NHS hospital data also shows daily Covid admissions in England have increased by a third in a week, rising from 171 on July 28, to 229 on August 4, the latest figures available. 

Hospitalizations had been freefalling nationally since March, from a peak of almost 1,200. 

The beginning of July however, saw these numbers begin an uptick, rising slightly. 

But, current admission levels are nowhere near levels seen earlier in the pandemic, when a high of 4,100 admissions were logged per day. 

And, as time has worn on, fewer and fewer admissions are directly down to the virus. Instead, many patients are just coincidentally ill.