Omicron Variant EG.5 Linked to 17.3% of New COVID-19 Cases

According to the most recent data published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the SARS-CoV-2 omicron variant, EG.5, is now the leading cause of new COVID-19 cases across the United States. Comprising 17.3% of new infections, this variant has superseded XBB.1.16.

The CDC estimates that the COVID pandemic has caused 6,233,900 hospitalizations and 1,136,47 deaths. While the number of COVID-related deaths has remained relatively stable since widespread vaccine adoption, there was a 12.5% increase in COVID-19 hospitalization in the last week.

Between July 23, 2023, and August 5, 2023, 17.3% of new COVID infections were associated with the EG.5 variants. The rest of the top five causes of COVID-19 at that time were the XBB.1.16, XBB.2.3, XBB.1.5, and FL1.5.1, comprising 15.6%, 11.2%, 10.3%, and 8.6%, respectively.

Other variants that have contributed to recent cases are XBB.1.16.6, XBB.1.16.1, XBB.19.1, XBB.19.2, XBB, XBB.1.5.72, XBB.1.5.10, FE.1.1, and CH.1.1.

According to a statement published by the World Health Organization (WHO) on August 9, 2023, EG.5 was derived from XBB.1.9.2, commonly called a descendant lineage. These variants have similar spike proteins to XBB.1.5.

“EG.5 carries an additional F456L amino acid mutation in the spike protein compared to the parent XBB.1.9.2 subvariant and XBB.1.5. Within the EG.5 lineage, the subvariant EG.5.1 has an additional spike mutation Q52H and represents 88% of the available sequences for EG.5 and its descendent lineages,” noted the WHO in its statement.

The first reported cases of EG.5 emerged on February 17, 2023; however, the descendent lineage wasn’t designated a variant under monitoring until July 19, 2023. With this announcement from the WHO, the organization is classifying EG.5 as a variant of interest.

“While EG.5 has shown increased prevalence, growth advantage, and immune escape properties, there have been no reported changes in disease severity to date. While concurrent increases in the proportion of EG.5 and COVID-19 hospitalizations (lower than previous waves) have been observed in countries such as Japan and the Republic of Korea, no associations have been made between these hospitalizations and EG.5,” said the WHO announcement.