Since the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus first reared its head and sparked a global pandemic, scientists and health experts have warned of the virus’s ability to mutate and give rise to new variants.
In recent weeks, a new variant named Eris (EG.5) has been sweeping the UK causing a marked spike in Covid-19 cases. Scientists are confident that cases won’t reach anything like previous peaks and that numbers will remain relatively low for at least the next few weeks.
Here is everything we know about the Eris Covid-19 variant, including the key symptoms to look out for.
EG.5, more commonly (and unofficially) dubbed Eris after the goddess of discord and strife in Greek mythology, is a sublineage of the Omicron variant.
According to an initial risk evaluation published by the World Health Organisation (WHO) on 9 August, the Eris variant family – which includes a dominant subvariant of its own called EG.5.1 – was first detected back in February 2023.
Since then, Eris has seen a relative increase in proportion compared to other variants currently circulating globally, leading to its detection in 51 countries to date including the UK, the US, China, South Korea, Japan and Canada.
EG.5.1 was first designated as a variant in the UK on 31 July, when the Eris family was classed by WHO as a “variant under monitoring”. With EG.5 and all of its subvariants having now been upgraded to “variant of interest” status in that latest WHO risk evaluation, EG.5.1 was estimated by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) to have the highest growth rates of variants in Britain.
Eris is also reportedly the second most prevalent strain in the UK (accounting for about one in 10 Covid cases), behind another Omicron spin-off: XBB.1.16 (more commonly known as Arcturus).
Professor Lawrence Young, a virologist at Warwick University, recently told i: “It is very likely that EG.5.1 is contributing to the current increase in Covid infections we are currently experiencing in the UK.
“The UKHSA estimates that this variant has a clear growth advantage over other virus variants. While this means that the EG.5.1 variant is more infectious than other variants and is likely to become the dominant version of Covid over the coming months, there is no evidence that this virus is resulting in an increase in people with severe disease.”
This reported “growth advantage”, along with what WHO described as “immune escape characteristics”, led the organisation to warn that Eris may continue to lead to a rise in overall case incidence and could even eventually emerge as the dominant strain worldwide. However, WHO added that to date there have been no reported changes in disease severity associated with the variant, with infection lasting no longer than any other previous variants.
Currently, there is also little to no evidence to suggest that the Eris strain would present any new symptoms to those commonly associated with its parent Omicron variant, which include:
“Based on the available evidence, the public health risk posed by EG.5 is evaluated as low at the global level, aligning with the risk associated with XBB.1.16 and the other currently circulating variants of interest,” WHO continued.
Meanwhile, Professor Francois Balloux, director of the University College London Genetics Institute, said: “There’s no reason to believe EG.5.1 comes with different symptoms or is more severe than any other of the Omicron variants in circulation. It really doesn’t look like a serious concern to me.”
The latest round of Covid-19 vaccinations, which should offer similar protection against Eris as to other known variants, are expected to be offered beginning for some groups in September and continuing for the majority in October, officials believe.
Meanwhile, WHO said in its EG.5 risk evaluation on 9 August that it will “continue to regularly assess the impact of variants on the performance of Covid-19 vaccines to inform decisions on updates to vaccine composition”.
As for how this new wave of infections might progress, Professor Paul Hunter, of University of East Anglia, said: “It is difficult to predict how Covid will go this autumn, but we are likely to see more cases as we progress towards winter.
“The other human coronaviruses tend to peak somewhere between November and February and it is likely that this is what we will see with Covid.”
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