The World Health Organization (WHO) on Friday urged countries to maintain surveillance of Covid-19 in light of the threat posed by the new strains EG.5 and BA.2.86 of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, derived from the Omicron variant.
At the usual press conference at the organization’s headquarters, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called on countries to continue reporting on the epidemiological status of Covid-19 so that WHO can “advise them on the risk of new EC.5 variants. [já classificada de interesse] and BA.2.86 [classificada como sob monitorização]”.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, without giving reasons, warned of the “increase in hospital admissions, admissions to intensive care units and deaths in some countries”.
The technical lead of the COVID-19 response at WHO, Maria Van Kerkhove, stressed the importance of vigilance, “not only to detect variants, but also to know whether or not people are infected”.
“Governments must remain vigilant in the face of covid-19 because the threat has not yet disappeared,” stressed the epidemiologist, who warned of the “rise in hospital admissions in July in the temperate regions of the northern hemisphere”, where it is summer.
“Something that is not to be expected when we think of a respiratory pathogen, which usually peaks in the temperate regions of the planet during the winter months. This worries us,” said Maria Van Kerkhove.
covid-19 is a pandemic respiratory disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, a type of virus that was discovered in China in 2019 and quickly spread around the world, assuming several variants and subvariants, some of which are more contagious than others.
In July, the WHO warned that the EG.5 strain, first reported in February and already identified in several countries, such as Portugal, could cause “an increase in the incidence” of infections and “in some countries could become dominant’. even in the world”.
The WHO justified the warning on the basis that this line, which derives from the recombinant XBB.1.9.2 subline of the Omicron variant, “displays antibody evasion characteristics” and has a “growth advantage”.
However, the WHO warned that the risk to global health from the variant was low.
The BA.2.86 variant, which has multiple genetic mutations in the virus protein that binds to human cells, was first identified in July, with cases reported primarily in Israel, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Source: DN
