SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, constantly changes and accumulates mutations in its genetic code over time. New variants of SARS-CoV-2 are expected to continue to emerge. Some variants will emerge and disappear, while others will emerge and continue to spread and may replace previous variants.
A variant dubbed Eris now accounts for the largest proportion of new COVID infections across the United States.
About 17.3% of U.S. COVID cases were believed to have been caused by the variant, formally known as EG.5 , as of early August, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That number is 7.5% higher than at the beginning of July.
Other dominant variants include XBB.1.16, accounting for 15.6% of cases, and XBB.2.23, accounting for 11.2% of cases, CDC data shows. Another 10.3% of COVID cases are from XBB.1.5, while 8.6% of cases were caused by an XBB-related variant known as FL.1.5.1.
Experts say EG.5 could be outperforming other variants because it appears to have a "mildly beneficial mutation," CBS News reported.
Eris is one of several closely related Omicron subvariants that have been vying for dominance in recent months. All of these variants are descendants of the XBB strain, which is the target of this fall’s COVID vaccines.
"While the COVID emergency has been lifted and we are no longer in a crisis phase, the threat of COVID has not gone away . Therefore, keeping up with surveillance and sequencing remains absolutely critical," said Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, World Health, the organization’s technical lead for COVID, said in a statement last month.
Because the CDC has slowed its tracking of COVID variants, it was unable to project the emergence of EG.5 until now, as only California, Georgia and New York have had enough sequences to update national data, CDC officials said. the CDC. While tens of thousands of sequences were uploaded to virus databases early in the pandemic, there are now fewer than 2,000.
"Because Nowcast is modeled data, we need a certain number of sequences to accurately predict ratios at present," CDC spokesperson Kathleen Conley told CBS News. "For some regions, we have a limited number of streams available and therefore do not show Nowcast estimates in those regions, although those regions are still used in the aggregated national Nowcast."
What does this mean
A new COVID variant known as EG.5 is taking hold in the United States just as Americans expect an updated COVID vaccine in the fall.
