The World Health Organisation is keeping an eye on a new strain of Covid-19 known as EG.5, often known as “Eris,” which is responsible for an increasing number of infections in nations like China and the United States.

It has been classified by the WHO as a “variant of interest,” meaning that it will be watched for alterations that might make it worse.

According to the organization’s assessment of the available data, compared to other variations already in use, it poses a minimal global public health risk. A more general statement from the WHO in May stated that Covid-19 was now “an established and ongoing health issue which no longer constitutes a public health emergency of international concern.”

Eris is said to have similar symptoms to previous variations, such as a fever, cough, sore throat, exhaustion, runny nose, and altered taste and odour.

“While EG.5 has shown increased prevalence, growth advantage, and immune escape properties, there have been no reported changes in disease severity to date,” the WHO said in a risk evaluation published Wednesday.

It was further stated that these characteristics might cause the variation to take over in some nations, or even globally.

The official name of the variant is EG.5, whereas the nickname “Eris” was chosen at random online and afterwards used to gain popularity for the EG.5.1 subvariant.

According to sequencing data provided to the Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data (GISAID) as of August 7, China accounted for the majority of EG.5 cases, followed by the United States, South Korea, Japan, and Canada.

Additionally, it was discovered in Australia, Singapore, the United Kingdom, France, Portugal, and Spain.

The CDC reports that EG.5 is currently the predominant strain in the United States, accounting for 17.3% of cases as of the week ending August 5.

It happens just as Moderna, Pfizer, and Novavax get ready to launch new Covid vaccinations this autumn that are intended to protect against XBB mutations, which are related to Omicron.

The vaccine from Novavax, according to the company, “induces functional immune responses to XBB subvariants including XBB.1.5, XBB.1.16 and XBB.2.3.”

The EG.5 strain is descended from a variation that has the same spike amino acid profile as XBB.1.5.

“EG.5 is part of the XBB lineage and is more closely related to the XBB variants than it is to previous vaccine strains,” Justin Lessler, professor in the Department of Epidemiology at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, said via email.

“For this reason, the expectation is that the reformulated vaccines that will be available this fall will offer better protection to EG.5 than previous vaccines.”

CDC Director Mandy Cohen predicts that new vaccines will be accessible in the United States starting in late September as the private sector takes over responsibility for vaccine distribution.

(Adapted from CNBC.com)