With India reporting cases of new Covid-19 variant Eris in some states, Doctors Association Kashmir (DAK) on Thursday said the new variant is not a cause of concern for us and there is no need to worry about it.
“There is no evidence to suggest that the new variant causes more severe illness,” said influenza expert and DAK President Dr Nisar ul Hassan.
Dr Hassan said the EG.5, dubbed as Eris is a sub-variant of Omicron variant of Covid-19. It is rapidly spreading across the UK and US and has also been reported in China, Europe and Japan.
The new variant was first detected in India in May 2023 and the fact that there has been no significant increase in the incidence of the new strain since its detection 3 months ago shows that it is not something to be bothered about,” he said.
The DAK President the new variant is basically a sub-lineage of omicron which most of us have gone through and our population has enough immunity against omicron and its sub-variants.
“With high vaccination rates and natural immunity, the possibility of a new wave in our population due to the variant is unlikely,” he said.
Dr Nisar said new variants will keep coming as frequent changes in the genomic structure are part of the natural course of the virus.
“We are going to see the new variant Eris for sometime before it is replaced by yet another variant. That is the nature of the virus,” he said.
“World Health Organisation (WHO) has added the new variant EG.5 to the list of monitored variants and classified it as a variant of interest and not variant of concern as it does not pose a threat to public health,” he added.
