WHO classifies Eris as Covid-19 ‘variant of interest’
- EG.5 variant has increased transmissibility, but not seen as having more health risks
- The WHO declared the global coronavirus emergency over three months ago
The World Health Organization classified the EG.5 coronavirus strain circulating in the United States and China as a “variant of interest” but said it did not seem to pose more of a threat to public health than other variants.
The fast-spreading variant also known as Eris, the most prevalent in the United States with an estimated more than 17 per cent of cases, has been behind upticks in the virus across the country and also has been detected in China, South Korea, Japan and Canada, among other countries.
“Collectively, available evidence does not suggest that EG.5 has additional public health risks relative to the other currently circulating Omicron descendant lineages,” the WHO said in a risk evaluation.
A more comprehensive evaluation of the risk posed by EG.5 was needed, it added.
Covid-19 has killed more than 6.9 million people globally, with more than 768 million confirmed cases since the virus emerged. WHO declared the outbreak a pandemic in March 2020 and ended the global emergency status for Covid-19 in May this year.
Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO’s technical lead on Covid-19, said EG.5 had an increased transmissibility but was not more severe than other Omicron variants.