EG.5 subvariant may soon dominate COVID-19 cases in Canada. What to know
Global News
EG.5, the fast-spreading COVID subvariant, is now circulating in Canada as health officials across the world grapple to figure out its potential impact.
EG.5, the fast-spreading COVID-19 subvariant, is now circulating in Canada as health officials across the world grapple to figure out its potential impact on transmissibility, severity and vaccine effectiveness.
The World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday classified the EG.5 strain as a “variant of interest.” It has not been listed as a variant of interest or concern by Health Canada.
While this subvariant of Omicron has been gaining momentum in countries such as Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, and China, prompting heightened global attention, health experts and the WHO say EG.5 does not seem to pose more of a threat to public health than other variants.
“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 VOIs,” the WHO stated in a release Wednesday.
“It definitely grows at a faster rate than the other variants do,” explained Gerald Evans, chair of infectious disease in the department of medicine at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont. “And it looks like it’s going to become by the time the fall comes around, it’s going to be the one that we are going to see most of all.”
EG.5 is a descendant of the XBB Omicron strains that have dominated viral transmission in recent months. It has the same makeup as XBB.1.9.2 but carries an extra spike mutation, Evans said.
It has a different name because when there are “too many” numbers after the XBB part, scientists will create a shorthand, like EG.5.