Covid is back with a new strain of “Eris”: the incidence in the US has skyrocketed

Doctors are waiting for the worsening of the epidemiological situation

Coronavirus, which has long left the news tops, meanwhile continues to mutate. And now it has given birth to a new version of EG.5, which the World Health Organization has included in the category requiring monitoring and urged countries to monitor its distribution. And experts today call it swift.

As the well-known therapist, military doctor Alexei Vodovozov, says on his social network, the new genetic variant of the EG.5 coronavirus was unofficially called “Eris”, or “Eris” (Eris): “By the name of the solar system planetoid, the second largest after Pluto, which in in turn named after the ancient Greek goddess of discord. He wound up in Europe in February 2023, and on July 19 he was included in the Wozovsky list of worthy observations. It seems that this is another recombinant, it has the genetic features of XBB.1.9.2 and S: F456L (sub-variants of Omicron. – Auth.). In the UK, it is growing at a rate of 20.5% per week, in the US it has grown from 11.9 to 17.3% in 2 weeks, eventually becoming the most common option … The incidence rates and hospitalizations are growing again, will this turn into a full-fledged we will see the next wave, but the issues of autumn vaccination are becoming more relevant than ever.” The expert expresses hope that the updated Russian vaccines will appear on time, and “the issues of necessary funding will be resolved as early as this century.”

… In India, the new Eris began to spread by leaps and bounds, it was first discovered there in March of this year. According to WHO expert on virus evolution Anurag Agrawala, a periodic increase in the facts of infection will be observed as immunity decreases and new mutations develop that elude him: “We have seen sporadic cases of Eris in India, but so far there is nothing to worry about.”

In the UK, Eris already accounts for one in seven new cases of covid, accounting for 14.6% of cases (second only to Arcturus). COVID-19 incidence rates continue to rise, from 3.7% of 4,403 cases of respiratory illness last week to 5.4% of 4,396 cases this week.

According to the doctor of laboratory diagnostics Alexander Solovyov, today scientists suggest that it is with these variants of the virus (descendants of Omicron) that the epidemiological situation will worsen in the next 5 weeks in the countries of the Northern Hemisphere.

It is difficult to say how further events will develop. But the WHO believes that “because of its growth advantage and immune evasion characteristics, EG.5 could cause an increase in disease and become dominant in some countries or even worldwide.”

In Russia, the identification of this sub-variant is not reported, but experts are confident that this is only a matter of time.

Published in the newspaper “Moskovsky Komsomolets” No. 29090 dated August 11, 2023

Newspaper headline:
Sometimes covid comes back