New COVID-19 variants spreading in US, UK

New COVID-19 variants spreading in US, UK

Eg.5.1, or ‘eris’ a new COVID-19 variants descending from the omicron variant xbb.1.9.2 is quickly transmitting across the United Kingdom and the United States.

Recent data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) revealed that the eg.5 variant is responsible for more than 17 percent of new cases over the past two weeks.

According to the CDC, this is the highest prevalence of any strain that is currently spreading across the U.S.

Eg.5.1 has also surpassed the Arcturus variant, which was previously prevalent and accounted for nearly 16 percent of infections in the United States.

Meanwhile, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) reported that as of the latest data gathered, eg.5.1  now accounts for 14.6 percent of all cases in the United Kingdom.

The report comes a month after the said variant was first flagged by health authorities.

According to the UKHSA, COVID-19 case rates continue to increase this week compared to prior records.

Previously, 3.7 percent of 4,403 respiratory specimens reported through the Respiratory Datamart System were identified as COVID-19.

This time, however, 5.4 percent of 4,396 were of the said disease.

Taking this into account, experts have warned of a winter crisis just like last year, when COVID, flu, and RSV were being reported at the same time.

The World Health Organization in July upgraded the eg.5 variant to its variant under control monitoring classification a step below the variant of concern.

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