The EG.5 strain has expanded swiftly in the United States and is more transmissible. According to a US health authority, improved immunisations will provide protection.

On Wednesday, the World Health Organisation (WHO) designated a new strain of COVID-19 as a “variant of interest.” The EG.5 variety has been quickly spreading in the United States, accounting for more than 17% of cases. It’s been found in China, South Korea, Japan, and Canada.

What more do we know about the COVID-19 EG.5 variant?

The EG.5 strain of COVID-19 has been designated as a “variant of interest” by the World Health Organisation.

According to the WHO, the novel variety does not appear to constitute an additional public health concern when compared to existing strains of COVID-19.

“The available evidence does not suggest that EG.5 poses any additional public health risks compared to the other currently circulating Omicron descendent lineages,” the organisation stated.

It stated that a more thorough assessment of the risk presented by EG.5 was required.

According to Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO’s technical lead on COVID-19, while EG.5 had higher transmissibility, infections were not more severe than with other Omicron variations.

“We don’t detect a change in severity of EG.5 compared to other Omicron sublineages that have been in circulation since late 2021,” she said.

Meanwhile, the head of the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Dr. Mandy Cohen, stated that new vaccines will be available in mid-to-late September and will provide protection against the variation.

“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, and they’re still picked up by the tests,” Cohen said.

The CDC director stated that the virus mutations were “small changes” and “subtypes of what we’ve seen before.”

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

WHO claims that countries are failing to report COVID-19 data.
Meanwhile, WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stated that several nations were failing to provide coronavirus data to the organisation.

According to him, just 11% of COVID-19-related hospitalisations and ICU admissions were documented.

The World Health Organisation developed a set of recommendations for reporting data on the virus, specifically mortality and morbidity. It also advised governments to keep providing vaccinations.

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

“And the delay in our ability to do so is increasing.” And our ability to do so is dwindling.”

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

By: Aditya