New case of Covid new variant EG.5 is on the rise in US

The new case of coronavirus’s new variant EG.5 is increasing in the United States of America, reports CNN.

Nationally, EG.5 is causing about 17 percent of new Covid-19 cases in the country, compared to 16 percent for the next most common lineage, XBB.1.16, CNN reports quoting the latest estimates of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

EG 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.

Compared to its parent XBB.1.9.2, it has one extra mutation to its spike, at position 465, according to the report.

EG.5 also now has its own offshoot, EG.5.1, that adds a second mutation to the spike. That one is also spreading rapidly.