The EG.5 variant of COVID-19 continues to be the most prevalent of the three variants of interest (VOIs) being monitored by the World Health Organization, accounting for 33.6% of sequences submitted to a central database in the week through Sept. 10, up from 25.9% four weeks earlier. The variant, which has been dubbed Eris, following the Greek-alphabet designation used for other variants, is still understood to be of low additional public health risk globally, aligning with the risks posed by other circulating VOIs. Those are XBB.1.5 and XBB.1.6, both of which are decreasing in prevalence globally, the WHO said in its latest epidemiological update published early Monday.
The update came as the Nobel Prize in medicine was awarded to two scientists whose work enabled creation of mRNA vaccines against COVID-19. The WHO currently has seven variant under monitoring, or VUMs, a lesser designation than VOIs. As has been the case for months now, the agency warned that with countries greatly scaling back testing and sequencing, “it is harder to estimate the severity impact of SARSCoV-2 variants with mutations that potentially confer higher transmissibility. “There are currently no reported laboratory or epidemiological reports indicating any association between VOIs/VUMs and increased diseaseseverity.” But that may be because “low and unrepresentative levels of SARS-CoV-2 genomic surveill …
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