On Aug. 9, 2023, the World Health Organization (WHO) released standing recommendations for battling COVID-19 and released an updated risk assessment for the EG.5 Omicron variant, elevating it to a variant of interest and noting that may drive a rise in cases and become dominant.

EG.5 is a descendent lineage of XBB.1.9.2, which has the same spike amino acid profile as XBB.1.5. EG.5 was
first reported on Feb. 17, 2023. EG.5 carries an additional F456L amino acid mutation in the spike protein compared to the parent XBB.1.9.2
subvariant and XBB.1.5. Within the EG.5 lineage, the subvariant EG.5.1 has an additional spike mutation Q52H
and represented 88% of the available sequences for EG.5 and its descendent lineages.