The World Health Organization yesterday reported that the new COVID-19 variant EG.5, nicknamed “Eris,” has become an official “variant of interest” and is known to be present in at least 51 countries. There are concerns that Eris may be linked to the recent rise in cases.
Today the WHO stated that reported new COVID cases are up 80% over the last month, with 1.5 million new cases reported from July 10 to Aug. 6. Since monitoring and testing is way down, the 1.5 million figure, while indicative of the growth in cases, cannot be taken as the actual total amount. The largest number of COVID sequences reported to the WHO are from China (30.6%), the U.S. (18.4%), South Korea (14.1%) and Japan (11.1%). The numbers are a result of both the presence of the variant and the amount of monitoring and reporting.
