WHO identifies new coronavirus 'variant of interest'
It has also been detected in China, South Korea, Japan and Canada.
The World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday classified a new strain of covid-19 as a "variant of interest."
The EG.5 variant has been spreading rapidly in the United States, encompassing over 17 per cent of cases.
It has also been detected in China, South Korea, Japan and Canada.
What else do we know about the EG.5 variant of covid-19?
The WHO said that the new variant does not at present seem to pose an additional public health risk compared to other strains of covid-19.
"Collectively, available evidence does not suggest that EG.5 has additional public health risks relative to the other currently circulating Omicron descendent lineages," the organisation said.
It said that a more comprehensive evaluation of the risk posed by EG.5 was needed.
Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO's technical lead on covid-19, said that while EG.5 had increased transmissibility, infections were not more severe than other Omicron variants.
