What is the new strain?
“It was first reported on February 17, 2023 and designated as a variant under monitoring (VUM) on July 19, 2023. With this risk assessment, we are designating EG.5 and its sublineages as a variant of interest (VOI)”, detailed the WHO.
What does it mean to be a variant of interest?
“A variant is considered to be of interest (VOI) if there is initial scientific evidence of mutations – suspected – causing significant changes, and it is circulating widely (for example, it is known to have infected many groups of people , or has been detected in several countries)”, explains the Pan American Health Organization .
As of August 7, 2023, 7,354 Omicron EG.5 sequences from 51 countries have been submitted to GISAID. Most of the EG.5 sequences are from China (30.6%, 2247 sequences).
The other countries with at least 100 sequences are:
- United States of America (18.4%, 1,356 sequences).
- Republic of Korea (14.1%, 1,040 sequences).
- Japan (11.1%, 814 sequences).
- Canada (5.3%, 392 sequences).
- Australia (2.1%, 158 sequences).
- Singapore (2.1%, 154 sequences).
- United Kingdom (2.0%, 150 sequences).
- France (1.6%, 119 sequences).
- Portugal (1.6%, 115 sequences).
- Spain (1.5%, 107 sequences).
What are the symptoms?
To date, no changes in disease severity have been reported.. Although simultaneous increases in the proportion of GA.5 and COVID-19 hospitalizations (lower than in previous waves) have been observed in countries such as Japan and the Republic of Korea, no associations between these hospitalizations and GA.5 have been established. .
“However, due to its growth advantage and its immune escape characteristics, EG.5 may cause an increase in the incidence of cases and become dominant in some countries or even globally,” the WHO detailed in a statement.