REGION — With a new COVID-19 variant on the rise throughout the country, there has been a spike in the number of cases in hospitals and healthcare centers.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the new variant is called EG.5 or Eris, and is a subvariant of the Omicron variant. More than 17% of all COVID-19 cases nationwide are due to Eris.
However, in towns and cities throughout the region, public health officials say the situation is currently not as alarming. According to the CDC, the total number of hospital admissions in Essex County due to COVID-19 is 29 and the admissions level remains “low.”
“We aren’t seeing that many cases being reported in hospitals,” Marblehead Board of Health member Tom McMahon said. “Many people are deciding to take the tests at home.”
According to the state Department of Public Health, Marblehead’s 14-day average daily incidence rate is one of the lowest — 2.4 per 100,000 residents— in the region.
Lynnfield’s rate is the highest, with 4.4 cases per 100,000 residents.
While Lynnfield has the highest average daily incidence rate, the town’s public health nurse, Karen Cronin, said that it isn’t in trouble right now.
“Frankly, we haven’t seen an uptick in cases in Lynnfield as of now,” Cronin said. “It might be a different story when schools begin, but as of now the numbers and percentages of people testing positive for COVID-19 aren’t high.”
Lynn (2.5), Peabody (3.3), Saugus (3.7), Swampscott (3.8), and Nahant (4.3) do not have particularly concerning average daily incidence rates either.
1,377 new confirmed cases were reported in Massachusetts in the last seven days and 16,674 COVID-19 molecular tests were conducted. According to the CDC, the amount of hospitalizations for COVID-19 has not risen drastically.
According to the World Health Organization, the Eris variant has been classified as a “variant of interest.” The WHO, in its risk evaluation report, said that the public health risk Eris poses is low at the global level, and that the organization will monitor the variant to determine its severity.
