Eris: What to know about EG.5, the latest COVID subvariant to dominate cases

While the pandemic may seem like a distant memory to many, coronavirus continues to spread with new cases increasing due to the latest mutated strains of the virus.

A new subvariant of COVID-19 called EG.5 is increasing in Europe after first being identified earlier this year.

It was designated a “variant of interest” by the World Health Organization (WHO) this month as cases increase globally.

Here’s what you need to know about it.

EG.5 is a sublineage of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 and is closely related to other variants that have been circulating worldwide. It is a mutated version of the virus.

Its prevalence has increased globally from 7.6 per cent of COVID-19 cases at the end of June to 17.4 per cent at the end of July. This is why the WHO has now been designated “of interest”.

But the public health risk of this lineage is low due to its proximity to previous circulating variants, according to WHO. The global health body said, however, that the subvariant could become dominant in some countries or globally and cause an increase in COVID-19 cases.

“It clearly has some kind of advantage over the others,” explained Rowland Kao, Professor of Veterinary Epidemiology and Data Science at the University of Edinburgh.

But he told Euronews Next that it’s “nowhere near anything as dramatic” as when the original variant of Omicron began increasing in prevalence globally in 2021.

Some have nicknamedanother sublineage of EG.5, known as EG.5.1 as “Eris,” a name that has circulated in the news and online.

The symptoms of EG.5 appear to be similar to other variants, Andrew Pekosz, a professor in the Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology at Johns Hopkins University said in an interview with the university’s public health