WHO designates new Covid strain ‘Eris’ as ‘variant of interest’ 

Although the Eris G.5 coronavirus strain is a “variant of interest” according to the World Health Organization, it does not appear to be any more dangerous to the general public’s health than other variants.

The fast-spreading version, which accounts for an estimated more than 17% of infections in the US, has been linked to an increase in the virus not only in that nation but also in China, South Korea, Japan, and Canada, among other nations.

In a risk assessment, the WHO stated the evidence. Taken together does not suggest that EG.5 has additional public health risks. Relative to the other currently circulating Omicron descendent lineages. It was necessary to do a more thorough assessment of the risk that Eris G.5 posed.

COVID-19

Since the virus’s emergence, COVID-19 has caused the deaths of more than 6.9 million individuals worldwide. More than 768 million confirmed cases. In March 2020, the WHO declared the outbreak a pandemic. COVID-19’s worldwide emergency designation was lifted in May of this year.

The WHO’s technical head on COVID-19, Maria Van Kerkhove, stated that although EG.5 was more transmissible. It is more than other Omicron variants, it was not more severe. In comparison to other sublineages of Omicron that have been in circulation since late 2021, “we don’t detect a change in severity of EG.5”, she said.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director general, lamented the fact that several nations failed to provide WHO with COVID-19 data. Only 11% of hospital and ICU admissions linked to the virus, according to him.

In response, WHO released a series of COVID standing recommendations in which it asked nations to continue providing vaccine and reporting COVID data, particularly death and morbidity data.

According to Van Kerkhove, efforts to combat the virus are being hampered by the lack of data from numerous nations. She claimed that “about a year ago, we were in a much better position to either act or be more agile.” And right now, the time it takes for us to do it is getting longer. And we are losing the ability to accomplish this.

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