Editor’s Note: In light of the mountain of false information disseminated over the past few years concerning COVID, masks, quarantine and other ‘health’ recommendations from the ‘professionals’, please take this information with a grain of salt.
After a relatively quiet summer, COVID-19 appears to be gaining traction again in the U.S., with the latest subvariant EG.5 (Eris) causing increases in cases and hospitalizations across the country.
New COVID-19 subvariant EG.5 currently makes up the majority of cases in the U.S., according to the CDC.
Though data on the new variant is lacking, doctors are commonly seeing upper respiratory complaints, like sore throat, cough, congestion, and runny nose.
Meanwhile, other COVID-19 symptoms, like loss of taste and smell, are less common with newer variants.
The most recent variant proportion estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), EG.5 makes up the majority of COVID-19 cases in the U.S., accounting for just over 20% of all illnesses.
Hospitalizations are starting to tick up as well: The most recent data, from August 19, shows 15,067 new COVID hospitalizations—a 19% increase from the previous week.
As with most new COVID variants and subvariants, one question seems to come to mind first: “What are the symptoms?”
Though all COVID-19 symptoms, regardless of variant, are unlikely to differ too much, it’s difficult to say for sure which symptoms are specific to EG.5 right now- but here’s what doctors have been seeing recently as the new subvariant gains steam throughout the U.S.
While there is not strong data yet on the kinds of symptoms people are experiencing right now, doctors are anecdotally reporting mostly mild or common symptoms of COVID-19.
Kristina K. Bryant, MD, a pediatric infectious diseases specialist with Norton Children’s Infectious Diseases, told Health that she’s mostly seeing patients with symptoms similar to the prior Omicron subvariant.
Those symptoms involve mainly upper respiratory complaints, like sore throat, cough, congestion, and runny nose.
“Some people even said they thought they had allergies,” Bryant said. “But EG.5 bears watching. It is the dominant subvariant.”
