 
•  Five variants under monitoring (VUMs): DV.7, XBB, XBB.1.9.1, XBB.1.9.2 and XBB.2.3  
 
Table 6 shows the number of countries reporting VOIs and VUMs, and their prevalence from epidemiological week 
48 (27 November to 3 December 2023) to week 52 (25 December to 31 December 2023). The VOIs and VUMs 
exhibiting increasing trends are highlighted i n yellow, those that have remained stable are highlighted in blue, and 
those with decreasing trends are highlighted in green.  
 
Globally, JN.1 is currently the dominant circulating  VOI (reported by 71 countries), accounting for 65.5% of sequences 
in week 52 compared to 24.8% in week 48 (Figure 10, Table 6). Its parent lineage, BA.2.86, is stable and accounted 
for 7.8% of sequences in week 52 compared to 7.0% in week 48 (Figure 10, Table 6 ). The initial risk evaluation for 
JN.1  was published on 19 December 2023, with an overall evaluation of low public health risk at the global level 
based on available evidence.  
 
The other VOIs, XBB.1.5, XBB.1.16 and EG.5, have decreased in global prevalence during the same period: XBB.1.5 
accounted for 3.3% of sequences in week 52, a decrease from 8.3% in week 48; XBB.1.6 accounted for 1.5% of 
sequences in week 52, a decrease from  6.3% in week 48; EG.5 accounted for 16.6% of sequences in week 52, a 
decrease from 43.6% in week 48 (Fig