WHO classifies EG.5 as a ‘variant of interest’ for COVID-19

Aug 9 (Reuters) – The World Health Organization on Wednesday classified the EG.5 coronavirus strain circulating in the United States and China as a “variant of interest” but said it did not appear to pose a major threat to public health. what others. variants.

The fast-spreading variant, the most prevalent in the United States with an estimated more than 17% of cases, has been behind spikes in the virus across the country and has also been detected in China, South Korea, Japan and Canada, among others. countries.

“Taken together, the available evidence does not suggest that EG.5 has additional public health risks relative to the other currently circulating lineages of Omicron descendants,” the WHO said in a risk assessment.

A more comprehensive assessment of the risk posed by EG.5 was needed, he added.

COVID-19 has killed more than 6.9 million people worldwide, with more than 768 million confirmed cases since the virus emerged. The WHO declared the outbreak a pandemic in March 2020 and ended the global emergency COVID-19 status in May of this year.

Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO technical lead on COVID-19, said that EG.5 had higher transmissibility but was not more severe than other Omicron variants.

“We did not detect a change in the severity of EG.5 compared to other Omicron sublineages that have been in circulation since late 2021,” he said.

Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus regretted that many countries did not report COVID-19 data to the WHO.

It said only 11% had reported virus-related hospitalizations and ICU admissions.

In response, the WHO issued a set of standing recommendations for COVID, urging countries to continue reporting COVID data, particularly mortality data, morbidity data, and to continue offering vaccination.

Van Kerkhove said the lack of data from many countries was hampering efforts to combat the virus.

“About a year ago, we were in a much better position to anticipate, act or be more agile,” he said. “And now the lag in our ability to do that is growing. And our ability to do this is diminishing.”

Reporting by Leroy Leo in Bengaluru and Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber in Geneva; Edited by Toby Chopra and Angus MacSwan

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