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The World Health Organization published its last weekly epidemiological update on COVID-19 on Friday, and said it would switch to a once-every-four-week schedule going forward.
The move comes as the agency transitions its surveillance of the disease to long-term prevention, control and management, and away from an emergency response.
But the WHO cautioned that COVID remains a major threat and urged countries not to dismantle their infrastructure but to sustain early warning, surveillance and reporting; to continue to track new variants; and to offer early clinical care and vaccines, especially to high-risk patient groups.
“Currently, reported cases do not accurately represent infection rates due to the reduction in testing and reporting globally,” the update said.
In the latest 28-day period through Aug. 27, more than 1.4 million new COVID cases were reported to the agency, up 38% from the previous 28-day period. More than 1,800 deaths were reported, but that was down 50% from the previous period.
As of Aug. 27, more than 770 million confirmed cases of COVID have been reported globally and more than 6.9 million people have died.
The EG.5 variant, dubbed Eris, is now the most prevalent of the three so-called variants of interest, or VOIs, said the WHO. Eris accounted for 26.1% of sequences submitted to a central database in the week through Aug. 13, surpassing XBB.1.16, which accounted for 22.7% of sequences.
The third VOI is XBB.1.5, which accounted for 10.2% of sequences.
Meanwhile, BA.2.86, dubbed pirola, remains one of seven variants under monitoring, or VUMs, a lesser designation than a VOI.
Pirola was classified as a VUM on Aug. 17, and 21 sequences had been reported from seven countries, as of Aug. 30, the update noted.
“The potential impact of the high number of mutations in BA.2.86 is presently unknown and is under assessment,” it added.
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