New Covid Strain Tap Variant in California and the Country

There’s a new strain of the COVID-19 virus that’s emerging as the top variant in California. Known as EG.5, the CDC estimates that the subvariant accounts for the largest share of genomic samples nationwide, including those in the state, in the past week. UC Davis infectious disease expert Dr. Dean Blumberg says EG.5 is derived from the Omicron family and is part of the XBB branch. He anticipates that updated vaccines for the XBB variants will be available within the next month.  The World Health Organization has detected the EG.5 variant in 45 countries.