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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is reporting that a new variant of COVID-19 has become the leading cause of new cases in the United States.
The EG.5 variant, which is a descendant of the XBB strain, now accounts for 17% of all new cases in the country. The second most common strain, XBB.1.16, accounts for 16% of cases in the U.S.
The prevalence of the new strain comes as the United States reported an increase in the number of COVID hospitalizations for the first time in 2023. According to the CDC, over 9,000 people were hospitalized with COVID in the last week of July, compared to 6,300 people who were hospitalized at the end of June.
Despite the rise in hospitalizations, health experts said there is no evidence it causes more severe illness than other variants.
“With EG.5 and likely future variants that will come through the summer, this fall, this winter, we will likely see an increased number of infections and cases,” Dr. Dan Barouch, director of the Center for Virology and Vaccine Research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston told NBC News. “But my hope is that we will not see a dramatic increase in severe disease because we have, what I call, a wall of population immunity.”