Agencies Thursday, August 10, 2023 04:20 PM
The World Health Organization has classified a new, rapidly spreading strain of Covid as an “interesting mutant”, Sky News reports.
This strain bears the name EG.5, and it is one of the Omicron variants of the Corona virus, and its spread is increasing worldwide, including in Britain, the United States and China.
This strain has been detected in 51 countries in total, including South Korea, Japan, Canada, Australia, Singapore, France, Portugal and Spain.
The latest data indicates that this variant now accounts for 17.4 percent of Corona cases, or one in six infections, which the World Health Organization described as a “significant rise.”
However, the public health risk posed by EG.5 has been judged to be low, according to Sky News.
Characteristics of EG.5
Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO Technical Director on COVID-19, said:
EG.5 has increased transmissibility, but is not more severe than other Omicron mutants.
Collectively, the available evidence does not indicate that EG.5 has additional public health risks compared to the other currently propagated Omicron strains.
While EG.5 showed increased proliferation, growth advantage, and immune escape characteristics, no changes in disease severity have been reported to date.
The EG.5 variant has appeared in 51 countries so far, which has alerted the WHO to the next danger.
2023-08-10 13:20:00
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