COLUMBUS – The state has confirmed that a case of the COVID-19 variant BA.2.86 has been detected in Lorain County.
There have been at least 23 other human cases caused by BA.2.86, including two in Michigan and Virginia and in seven countries overseas.
The CDC considers BA.2.86 a notable variant because it contains a number of mutations that make it distinct from other currently circulating lineages.
“At this point, there is no evidence that this variant is causing any more severe illness, hospitalizations or deaths,” Ohio Health Department director Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff said.
8 indicted in COVID relief scams
Eight central Ohioans have been indicted for their roles in two schemes to fraudulently claim approximately $9 million in Pandemic Unemployment Assistance funds.
Tiffany Wilson, Lasheta McClellan, Alana Hamilton and five others were indicted for being part of two different schemes to alter claims for funds, eventually pocketing a combine $9 million, according to the office of Franklin County Prosecutor G. Gary Tyack.
Wilson was fired from her job as a subcontractor for the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services but accessed the computer system used to file PUA claims and altered multiple claims on behalf of Erin McGoy, Lataska Minor, Nicy Minor, Aja Minor and Sherrod Thompson, eventually defrauding the agency out of $5 million between November 2020 and June 2021, Tyack said.
The six were indicted on 21 felony counts of engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, telecommunications fraud, theft, tampering with records and money laundering, Tyack said.
Lasheta McClellan and Alana Hamilton, also a former ODJFS employee, were indicted on 19 similar counts, as well as filing incomplete, false, and fraudulent tax returns, after they allegedly scammed the state out of more than $4 million between May 2020 and October 2021 by supplying false information to file the claims.