Instead, epidemiologists think human behavior is the engine for this uptick. They point to things like record heat driving more people indoors for air conditioning, which helps the virus spread. The variant has become the most prevalent in the US just as cases, emergency room visits and hospitalizations are going up, although there’s nothing to suggest that this specific strain is what’s driving those increases. “It has an advantage, which is why it’s getting legs all around the world.”īeyond the US, EG.5 is growing quickly in Ireland, France, the UK, Japan and China. The World Health Organization upgraded its status on Wednesday from a variant under monitoring to a variant of interest, a move that signals the agency thinks it should be tracked and studied further. Eric Topol, a cardiologist at the Scripps Translational Research Institute. “It basically has some more immune escape compared to the ones that were precedents in this XBB series,” said Dr. A doctor explainsĬlinically, he said, these variants don’t seem to be causing different or more severe symptoms than the viruses that came before them. What you should know about the latest Covid-19 surge. People wearing masks walk in Gantry Plaza State Park, Long Island City on in New York City. The 465 mutation is present in about 35% of coronavirus sequences reported worldwide, including another that’s rising in prevalence in the Northeast, FL.1.5.1, suggesting that it is conveying some kind of evolutionary advantage over previous versions.ĮG.5 also now has its own offshoot, EG.5.1, that adds a second mutation to the spike. This mutation has appeared in other coronavirus variants before. Scientists aren’t sure exactly what new tricks it enables the virus to do, but variant hunters are paying attention because many of the new XBB descendants have adopted it. Your recent cold could be Covid-19, as the nation goes into a late summer waveĮG may sound like a whole new flavor of the virus, but it’s not it’s a spinoff of the XBB recombinant strain of the Omicron family. And it represents another incremental tweak to the virus rather than a major evolutionary leap like the original Omicron strain.Ĭompared with its parent XBB.1.9.2, it has one extra mutation to its spike, at position 465. (Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images) Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune/TNS/Getty Images BinaxNOW COVID-19 test kits were made available to students at Whitney Young High School, Feb.
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