New Covid variant Eris driving infections across US, parts of Europe

The typical symptoms of Eris being reported by doctors in India include high grade fever that lasts for a day or two, itchy throat, runny nose and typical cough that continues to impact patients for several days

Hyderabad: After a lull that lasted for several months, a new Covid variant Eris (EG 5.1) has started to drive infections across United States and other parts of Europe.

While cases of Covid infections are rising elsewhere, public health experts here have maintained that surge should not be a cause of concern, as the new variant, although transmits easily and quickly, is not at all virulent.

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Even before the US and UK started reporting Eris variant, experts closely following the Covid variants have said that a solitary case of EG.5 was detected in Telangana in March, 2023. Later, other variants including EG. 5.1 and EG 5.2 were also reported in Maharashtra, Chandigarh, Rajasthan and West Bengal between April and May.

The typical symptoms of Eris being reported by doctors in India include high grade fever that lasts for a day or two, itchy throat, runny nose and typical cough that continues to impact patients for several days.

This was the case in December when large number of people tested positive for H3N2 (influenza-A) , a sub-type of H1N1 (swine flu). Care givers have also reported that a few patients were losing their sense of taste for at least 10 days after testing positive for Covid.

Due to mild symptoms like cough and fever that lasts for a day or two, there are chances that large number of people may think that they were struck by seasonal flu.

Health officials made it clear that at this point, there is hardly any need to even to get vaccinated again, as a large cross-section of the population is already vaccinated with the double dose and later with booster shots.