SINGAPORE: Covid-19 cases are again increasing in the United States, China, and other parts of the world and on Wednesday (Aug 9), the World Health Organization (WHO) announced that a variant of the virus behind the uptick has been classified as a variant of interest.
The EG.5 coronavirus strain, a spin-off of the Omicron strain discovered late in 2021. Nicknamed ‘Eris,’ it has been found in South Korea, Japan, Canada, and other countries and is also spreading quickly in Ireland and France.
New #COVID19 variant of interest: EG.5.
Formerly a variant under monitoring, WHO has now designated this a variant of interest.
There has been a steady increase in this variant’s prevalence. As of 7 August 2023, over 7000 sequences have been shared from 51 countries.
More… pic.twitter.com/DlDdAPYMos
— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) August 9, 2023
Eris is now causing around 17 per cent of new Covid-19 cases in the US. A mutation present in Eris has been found in 35 per cent of all Covid-19 infections across the globe.
Furthermore, an offshoot of EG.5 with another mutation, termed EG.5.1, is spreading quickly in the US and England, where it is now responsible for 15 per cent of new Covid-19 cases.
Is this cause for alarm?
For the time being, maybe not.
“Based on the available evidence, the public health risk posed by EG.5 is evaluated as low at the global level,” said the WHO.
While Eris has greater transmissibility than previous variants, the symptoms it causes do not appear to be more severe than other Omicron variants.
“We don’t detect a change in severity of EG.5 compared to other sublineages of Omicron that have been in circulation since late 2021,” said Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO’s technical lead on Covid-19.
#COVID19 is still circulating in every country.
Dr @mvankerkhove updates on the latest variant of interest EG.5 ⬇️https://t.co/aYCZfspZyb pic.twitter.com/KMw8mSrX2n
— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) August 9, 2023
Columbia University immunology professor Dr David Ho told CNN that EG.5 and EG.5.1 “are only slightly more resistant to neutralizing antibodies in serum of infected and vaccinated persons.”
While visits to the emergency room and hospitalizations due to Covid-19 are increasing in the US, it cannot be said that this is because of Eris.
But the new classification as a variant of interest indicates that the WHO believes Eris needs to be tracked and studied further.
Only 11 per cent of countries have reported hospitalizations and intensive care unit admissions related to Covid-19, said WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
Underlining how important this data is, Dr Van Kerkhove added, “About a year ago, we were in a much better situation to either anticipate or act or be more agile. And now the delay in our ability to do that is growing. And our ability to do this is declining.” /TISG