The NCDC also assured Nigerians that the Agency is monitoring the new subvariants.
Disclosing these in an official press statement on the new COVID-19 Subvariants, the Director General of Director General Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, NCDC, Dr Ifedayo Adetifa, explained that the EG.5 variant is a descendant of XBB.1.9.2 (itself a descendant of Omicron).
Adetifa stated that as of 7th August 2023, the EG.5 has been reported in 51 countries including China, the United States of America, the Republic of Korea, Japan, Canada, Australia, Singapore, the United Kingdom, France, Portugal, and Spain among others.
The World Health Organisation, WHO, has classified EG.5 as a “variant of interest” (VOI) and conducted a risk assessment which found this new variant poses a low risk at the global level. In addition, EG.5 has not been associated with any change in symptoms/clinical manifestation and has not produced an increase in severity of illness and/or hospitalisations or difference in death rates in reporting countries.
EG.5 causes symptoms like those seen with other COVID-19 variants, including fever, cough, shortness of breath, fatigue, muscle aches, headache, and sore throat. So far, only one case of EG.5 has been seen in Africa, it has not been identified in Nigeria.
Adetifa in the statement said: “The recently discovered/reported BA.2.86 is a descendent lineage of BA.2 (a sublineage of Omicron, also found in Nigeria in 2022).
“As of August 23, 2023, the BA.2.86 variant had been reported in a handful of countries – the United Kingdom, Israel, Denmark, South Africa, and the United States. It has been classified by the WHO as a “variant under monitoring” (VUM) because it has multiple genetic differences that make it substantially different from its ancestor, BA.2, and from other currently circulating.
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