New coronavirus variant EG.5 on the rise: WHO, CDC on alert

The World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday labeled a brand new pressure of COVID-19 as a “variant of interest.” The EG.5 variant has been spreading quickly within the United States, encompassing over 17% of circumstances. It has additionally been detected in China, South Korea, Japan and Canada.

What else do we all know concerning the EG.5 variant of COVID-19?

The WHO stated that the brand new variant doesn’t at current appear to pose a further public health risk in comparison with different strains of COVID-19.

“Collectively, obtainable proof doesn’t counsel that EG.5 has extra public well being dangers relative to the opposite at the moment circulating Omicron descendent lineages,” the group stated.

It stated {that a} extra complete analysis of the danger posed by EG.5 was wanted. (Also Read | People with low levels of vitamin K have less healthy lungs: Study)

Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO’s technical lead on COVID-19, stated that whereas EG.5 had elevated transmissibility, infections weren’t extra extreme than different 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,” she stated.

Meanwhile, Dr Mandy Cohen, the director of the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), stated that up to date vaccines to be provided in mid-to-late September will present safety in opposition to the variant.

“Right now, what we’re seeing with the changes in the viruses, they’re still susceptible to our vaccine, they’re still susceptible to our medicines, they’re still picked up by the tests,” Cohen stated.

The CDC chief stated that the mutations within the virus amounted to “small changes” and “subtypes of what we’ve seen before.”

“We are likely to see this as a recommendation as an annual COVID shot just like we have an annual flu shot,” she stated.

Countries not reporting COVID-19 information, WHO says

Meanwhile, WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stated that many international locations weren’t reporting coronavirus information to the group.

He stated solely 11% had reported hospitalizations and ICU admissions associated to COVID-19.

The WHO issued a set of suggestions for reporting information on the virus, notably mortality and morbidity. It additionally urged international locations to proceed providing vaccination.

“About a year ago, we were in a much better situation to either anticipate or act or be more agile,” Van Kerkhove stated.

“And now the delay in our ability to do that is growing. And our ability to do this is declining.”

“What we cannot do right now is give you an accurate statistic of how many deaths are actually occurring for Covid-19,” she stated.