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Covid variant Eris takes hold in China but public health risk is low
- New EG.5 strain became dominant over the summer after first being detected in Indonesia in February
- There is no threat to the health system or sign of a major outbreak, Chinese authorities say
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Zhang Tongin Beijing
A new strain of Covid-19 spread throughout China over the summer to account for over 70 per cent of infections but its public health risk remains low, according to health authorities.
“The proportion of the EG.5 variant among circulating strains of the coronavirus grew from 0.6 per cent in April to 71.6 per cent in August. It has become the dominant strain in most provinces in China and is likely to continue this trend,” the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on its WeChat account on Saturday.
“EG.5’s prevalence is mainly due to its enhanced ability to escape immunity, reducing the neutralising ability of antibodies produced by previous infections.”
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EG.5, also known as Eris, is a sub-branch of the Omicron XBB.1.9.2 strain and was first found in Indonesia in February.
By Thursday it had been detected in at least 52 countries and regions.
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The World Health Organization (WHO) reclassified it as a “variant of interest” on August 9 but said the global risk level for the variant was low.
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