A new strain of the coronavirus which appeared shortly after the EG.5 variant titled ‘GFX’ is still under surveillance, the Head of the Immunology Department at Ain Shams University Ashraf Okba told Al-Aoula channel on Wednesday.
He explained that the fourth stage of the World Health Organization’s classification of viruses includes diseases that cause a very high death rate, and noted that none of coronavirus variants have been classified as severe yet.
The GFX variant is still under surveillance because the information known about it is still limited, and only nine cases have been known so far, he explained.
He specified that this does not mean these are the only nine cases of this strain worldwide, just that these are the ones that underwent examination and were registered.
Most of the current infections are from mutations derived from Omicron, he said, characterized by simple flu-like symptoms, and does not affect the lower respiratory system.
