Many people don’t want to think about the virus, but an increase in cases means it’s time for a refresher on how to protect yourself and oth
Just because the COVID-19 emergency ended doesn't mean the COVID-19 pandemic is over.
You’re not imagining it: Covid-19 cases are on the rise again.
Fortunately, since a vast majority of Americans have some sort of immunity, either from vaccination or a prior infection, or both, most people who get infected now will have a mild illness.
And while there are multiple strains circulating (nearly all of them descendants of the Omicron XBB variant), they are unlikely to cause the “wildfire spreading” that occurred with the Delta variant and the first Omicron variant, said Dr. David Boulware, a professor of medicine specializing in infectious diseases at the University of Minnesota Medical School. That includes EG.5, which was recently named a “variant under monitoring” by the World Health Organization and currently accounts for about 17 percent of cases in the United States.
“I’m not sure if it’s a surge, per se, or just uptick,” Dr. Boulware said of the current situation. Either way, he added, it’s a reminder “that, yes, Covid still exists.”
If you are fully vaccinated, including the booster, congratulate yourself. If not, this might be a good time to catch up. The new academic year starts soon and not all your classmates may be as conscientious as you.
A reminder of the symptoms – one of which is associated with a new strain.
Covid symptoms haven’t changed much since the start of the pandemic — sore throat, congestion, fatigue, fever and cough remain the most common, said Dr. Paul Sax, the clinical director of the division of infectious diseases at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Some people may also experience gastrointestinal symptoms, and there are reports that the XBB.1.16 strain can cause pink eye.
These generic symptoms mean it can be “extremely difficult to tell one virus from another,” Dr. Sax said. The easiest way to know if you have Covid or just a summer cold is to take a rapid test.
Not everybody with pink eye has the COVID XBB.1.16 strain, but it's a heads up if you also have any of the more classic symptoms.
Diseases don't go away just because people get bored with them. Hopefully there will soon be a yearly COVID shot just as there is a yearly flu shot.
If you need it, the CDC vaccine site is still available.
In general, the coronavirus “remains a major threat,” the WHO said in an update, although the international public health emergency was declared May 5 to be officially over. “WHO continues to urge Member States to maintain, not dismantle, their established COVID-19 infrastructure. It is crucial to sustain surveillance and reporting, variant tracking, early clinical care provision,” it added.
People are less likely to become hospitalized or die of covid-19 as they develop immunity because of prior infections and vaccination, but experts caution that elderly people and the severely immunocompromised are at elevated risk because their bodies have a tougher time fighting off the virus.
Long covid, which can range from several weeks of mild symptoms to months of debilitation, continues to pose risk to otherwise healthy and vaccinated people. There is insufficient research on the best treatments.
Studies have shown that 5 to 10 percent of people infected with coronavirus developed long covid symptoms, which have become less common with omicron variants. A Washington Post analysis of 5 million patients conducted in collaboration with research partners found that older adults and people with preexisting conditions including obesity and lung disease were more likely to report symptoms of long covid.
What to know about the new covid subvariant EG.5, nicknamed ‘Eris’ - The Washington Post
What "Eris" tells us about the future of the pandemic.
Rachel DuRose at Vox:
In the latest data published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Covid-19 hospitalizations rose 12.5 percent between July 23 and July 29. Overall, they have been increasing since July 1.
And in the last week, there was a 10 percent increase in locations reporting their highest levels of SARS-CoV-2 ever in sewage wastewater (and that’s despite a decrease in the number of cities reporting the virus in their wastewater).
This is all to say: Covid-19 appears to be making a comeback. And what’s more, this summer uptick coincides with (but may not be caused by) a new dominant strain of the virus taking hold in the US. It’s called EG.5, unofficially nicknamed Eris, and the CDC estimates it’s causing 17.3 percent of current Covid-19 cases in the country. And it’s on the rise: Since the beginning of July, EG.5’s prevalence has increased 9.8 percent.
The EG.5 variant descended from the omicron variant, which caused an explosive outbreak in late 2021 and early 2022. On Wednesday, the World Health Organization (WHO) upgraded EG.5 from a variant “under monitoring” to one of “interest,” meaning it believes it could pose an “increased risk to global public health.”
“Based on its genetic features, immune escape characteristics, and growth rate estimates, EG.5 may spread globally and contribute to a surge in case incidence,” WHO’s EG.5 Initial Risk Evaluation report states. “Several countries with rising EG.5 prevalence have seen increases in cases and hospitalizations, although at present there is no evidence of an increase in disease severity directly associated with EG.5.”
Infectious disease experts tell Vox they agree the new variant is worth paying attention to, but are cautious in saying how concerned we should be.
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How severe and contagious is EG.5?
The symptoms of EG.5 don’t appear to differ much from other omicron subvariants. Infected individuals report cough, fever, chills, shortness of breath, fatigue, body aches, loss of taste or smell, and headaches, among other symptoms.
The WHO reports that EG.5 is not resulting in more cases or deaths than its predecessor, the XBB strain of omicron.
But it’s possibly more contagious than other strains.
“The fact that [EG.5] is emerging quickly suggests that it does have some slight competitive advantage,” said Wurtz. This advantage is likely that it’s slightly more contagious or more capable of evading existing immunity, but, she added, more data is needed to confirm.
The good news is that this strain likely won’t cause as big of a wave as past variants, said Maureen Miller, an epidemiologist with the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. That’s because there’s more widespread immunity to SARS-CoV-2 either from vaccines or natural infection. But still, not everyone is equally protected, depending on when they were last vaccinated or exposed. “The bad news is that these protections wane,” she added. Given winter waves of Covid-19 have historically been the largest, it’s vital that people check to see if they are up-to-date with their boosters.
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How to protect yourself
Across the country, people have started returning to pre-pandemic ways, but McDermott-Levy, who is currently recovering from a Covid-19 infection she got from a family gathering, says the current upswing in cases is a reminder that we need to remain cautious.
“In retrospect, for my own case, I would have asked family members to test before they came. I used to do that,” she said. She also recommends practicing health habits, such as giving up smoking, to ensure your immune system is as strong as possible in case of infection.
All of the same Covid-19 prevention methods still apply. And the same groups are at highest risk for severe infection; older adults, those with compromised immune systems, and those with chronic diseases, said Miller.
People should wear an N-95 mask, social distance when possible in public spaces, and keep up-to-date on vaccines and boosters. Soon, a new Covid-19 vaccine formula will be available. It’s specifically designed to protect against the XBB subvariants (EG.5 descends from XBB) and will hopefully work to reduce the severity of EG.5 infections, said McDermott-Levy.
These shots are especially important given the upcoming back-to-school and winter seasons. There is an under-discussed seasonality to Covid-19 infections that lines up with weather patterns, said Miller. “When it’s too cold outside, people are inside. When it’s too hot outside, people are inside,” she said. Because the virus thrives in spaces where people are in close proximity, this is a problem.
Unfortunately, EG.5 and other future variants are merely a piece of the post-Covid world, but we do have the technology needed to track the virus’s rapid evolution. And that’s helpful, despite there being less data on Covid-19 cases overall.
A new COVID variant is lurking in the shadows in the USA, and it's Eris (EG.5). Eris is a descendent of the Omicron variant that raged during late 2021-early 2022.
Experts stress the importance of treatments and vaccines as infections increase
By Rachel Nania
Published August 10, 2023
After many months of declining numbers, COVID-19 cases are again increasing in the U.S., and so is the presence of what’s being called Eris (officially EG.5), a new version of the coronavirus that recently eclipsed the former top runner, Arcturus (XBB.1.16).
New data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows EG.5 accounts for 17.3 percent of COVID infections, while XBB.1.16 is responsible for 15.6 percent of cases. An alphabet soup of other omicron variant spinoffs make up the rest of current infections.
The newfound dominance of Eris “raises the point that this virus continues to circulate, and it continues to change,” the World Health Organization’s Maria Van Kerkhove said at a July news conference.
The good news, though, is that the precautions we relied on during the pandemic — such as frequent handwashing, wearing masks and avoiding crowded indoor spaces — still work. And experts say people at higher risk of complications from COVID, such as those with compromised immune systems, may want to consider reinstating some of them. Additionally, a new round of COVID-19 vaccines designed to combat these latest variants should be available this fall.
Eris was first detected in February and has since been tracked in 51 countries, according to an Aug. 9 report from WHO. And its global prevalence is increasing, the WHO notes. In mid-June, it was to blame for about 7.6 percent of global COVID cases; by mid-July, that share jumped to 17.4 percent.
Despite this latest subvariant’s growth advantage over its predecessors, experts say so far Eris doesn’t appear to make people sicker than its sibling strains.
Officials do note, however, that the subvariant’s characteristics may cause a rise in cases. And while we can’t say with certainty that Eris is behind the bump in cases in the U.S., “there’s a reasonable likelihood that the slight increase that we’re seeing in COVID activity is very possibly related to the coincidental finding of a new variant that is starting to become the predominant one,” says Steven J. Lawrence, M.D., professor of medicine in the division of infectious diseases at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
Reduce your risk of illness — and more variants
With Eris in the news and COVID cases on the rise, experts say it’s a good reminder that the virus has not gone away — and in fact, Lawrence predicts we’ll see even more activity as we head into the fall and winter months, when respiratory viruses tend to circulate at higher levels. But there are things you can do to lower your odds of getting sick from COVID.
“We have a lot of experience that masking is effective,” says Graham Snyder, M.D., an associate professor of infectious diseases at University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and medical director of infection prevention and hospital epidemiology at UPMC. “So if you are vulnerable because of a weak immune system or medical conditions, masking is still a way to keep yourself protected from being exposed to the virus in the first place.”
Avoiding large crowds indoors can also reduce your risk of infection. And don’t forget to test yourself if you’re feeling sick. “I still think it's important if you have a respiratory infection not to necessarily just write it off as a head cold," says Snyder, who adds that COVID symptoms caused by Eris seem to be in line with previous omicron strains.
If you test positive for COVID, you may be eligible for an oral treatment, like Paxlovid, that can significantly lessen the severity of the illness and reduce your risk of hospitalization. “I strongly recommend that anybody over 60, 65 who has COVID gets treated,” says Lawrence, who adds that Paxlovid and a similar pill called molnupiravir are still effective against the latest coronavirus variants, including Eris.
Most important, however, is to get vaccinated and to stay up to date on your shots. Everyone 6 months and older is eligible for a bivalent booster; adults 65 and older can go back for a second shot. A new vaccine that better targets the strains of omicron currently circulating will be available in the fall, health officials say, though it’s not clear exactly when. “And that’s something that honestly everybody should get,” Lawrence says, stressing its importance for people 50 and older.
Curious if you should boost now, with cases picking up, or wait for the new shot? Both Lawrence and Snyder say talk to your doctor about the best choice for your health status.
Not only will these measures help protect you, but some of them can help cut down on the overall transmission of the virus, which can help prevent more — and potentially more dangerous — variants from popping up in the future.
“The more [the virus] circulates, the more opportunity that it has to change,” the WHO’s Van Kerkhove says. “What our worry is, is that we could potentially see new variants that could be more severe and that’s something we have to keep an eye out for because we need to be keeping people well protected. With good surveillance, with good clinical care, with high levels of boosting, of vaccination among people who are most at risk, we can keep that impact low.”
Rachel Nania writes about health care and health policy for AARP. Previously she was a reporter and editor for WTOP Radio in Washington, D.C. A recipient of a Gracie Award and a regional Edward R. Murrow Award, she also participated in a dementia fellowship with the National Press Foundation.
The new COVID variant Eris is on the rise. Here's everything you need to know about it and how to protect yourself from it.
Masks
Wearing a quality mask that blocks ingestion of COVID-19 molecules remains the most effective way to protect yourself from the virus. N95 masks filter 95% of airborne particles, including the ones responsible for the transmission of COVID-19. When buying these masks off the web, make sure to verify that they're legitimate, as there are many fakes out there.
Hand sanitizer
COVID-19 can spread when you touch your mouth, nose or eyes after coming in contact with a surface contaminated by viral droplets. Therefore, another way to keep yourself safe from Eris is to diligently wash your hands using a hand sanitizer that contains at least 60% alcohol.
Disinfectant wipes
You can also opt to decontaminate surfaces by using a disinfectant wipe. Consider wiping down surfaces that are touched often such as doorknobs, remote controls and light switches.
An air purifier
An air purifier can remove harmful air particles from your home. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), this includes COVID-19 particles by way of using HEPA filters. Fortunately, the best air purifier we've tested, the Blueair Blue Pure 311i Max, has a quality HEPA filter. Not only does this purifier boast excellent filtering, but it's quiet, simple to use and has a washable filter.
Rusijoje nustatyta 17 užsikrėtimo nauju koronaviruso EG.5 (Eris) atvejų
PSO teigia, kad “Eris” nekelia ypatingos grėsmės. „Remiantis turimais įrodymais, EG.5 keliama grėsmė visuomenės sveikatai pasauliniu lygiu įvertinta kaip maža“, – teigė agentūra ir pridūrė, kad rizika panašu į kitus cirkuliuojančius dominančius variantus.
Rusijos specialistai nustatė 17 užsikrėtimo nauju koronaviruso variantu EG.5 arba „eris“ atvejų nuo balandžio iki rugpjūčio. Apie tai buvo…
