Concern is rising in parts of the world over the new COVID-19 variant EG-5, which has also been called Eris.

It has become the dominant variant in the United States, which led to the World Health Organisation classifying it as a variant of interest.

This classification means that Eris has genetic changes that give it an advantage over other variants.

However, experts say EG-dash-5 does not pose a substantial threat.

Wits Professor Shabir Madhi says, “The one issue in South Africa is that the amount of testing that’s being done is very limited, especially for mild cases. But even looking at hospitalisation, there hasn’t been much change in the number of individuals being admitted for COVID-19- almost for the past 12 months, which is a very positive thing. This particular sub-lineage of the Omicron variant, which was the parent variant, resulted in multiple sub-lineages, with more than 200 sub-lineages born since it was first identified in South Africa. This indicates that it will be a bit more transmissible than other variants, and maybe what we refer to as antibody evasive.”

Source: SABC News