TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 29137 SUBJECT: GRB 201216A - further Swift-XRT observations DATE: 20/12/22 16:55:43 GMT FROM: Phil Evans at U of Leicester P.A. Evans (U. Leicester), A. Tohuvavohu (U Toronto), J.A. Kennea (PSU) and T. Sbarrato (INAF-OAB) report on behalf of the Swift-XRT team. Swift has reobserved the field of GRB 201216A (GCN Circs. 29057, 29059) for a further 4 ks, between 00:18 UT and 11:58 UT on 2020 December 22. One of the sources in the XRT field of view appears to have faded (with 2.1 sigma significance). This source, “source 5” in the automated analysis (https://www.swift.ac.uk/ToO_GRBs/00021408/) is located at RA,Dec = 201.45786, +36.3944, which is equivalent to: RA(J2000): 13h 25m 49.89s Dec (J2000): +36d 23’ 39.8” with an uncertainty of 3.0 arcsec (radius, 90% confidence). This position is 5.2 arcmin away from the BAT/GUANO position (Tohovavohu et al. GCN Circ. 29059), well outside the 3 arcmin, 90% confidence BAT error region. It is also coincident with a catalogued object in (among others) the USNO-B1, 2MASS, SDSS and WISE catalogues, which NED classifies as a galaxy. We suggest therefore that this source is most likely simply a variable AGN near (in projection) to GRB 201216A, but cannot rule out the possibility of it being the GRB afterglow. This circular is an official product of the Swift-XRT team.