Jakarta –
A scientist in China said that the world must be calm in the face of the possibility of a new variant of the Corona virus appearing in China. So the surge in COVID-19 in China now has absolutely nothing to do with a certain type of Corona variant?
According to him, as published in the Lancet medical journal on Wednesday (8/2/2023), there were no new variants in the early weeks of the COVID-19 outbreak in China recently. To be exact, since the strict ‘Zero-COVID’ policy was lifted last December.
This was conveyed by professor at the Institute of Microbiology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and former head of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), George Gao referring to his study with researchers from the Beijing CDC, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
“The world must be completely calm from the fear of new variants or special variants circulating (in China),” he said, quoted by Reuters, Thursday (9/2).
According to him, the surge in COVID-19 in China is now triggered by the Omicron BA.5.2 and BF.7 sub-variants, just like other Corona variants that are spreading in other countries.
The study analyzed 413 new COVID cases in Beijing from November 14 to December 20, 2022. It found that 90 percent of most locally acquired infections were caused by Omicron BA.5.2 and BF.7.
The researchers said the findings were representative of the entire country, citing the characteristics of Beijing’s population and the circulation of the highly contagious strain of COVID-19.
It is known that China revoked its strict policy on handling the Corona virus, namely ‘Zero-COVID’, in early December, after having previously implemented it for three years. With the lifting of the rule, it relaxed city-wide lockdowns, mass testing and extensive quarantine.
Many countries have imposed special COVID-19 testing requirements for arrivals from China. The reason is, other countries are worried that there will be a new variant of Corona which will trigger a spike in cases in China, in a condition where information regarding COVID-19 from the Chinese side is very limited.
Gao said China carried out extensive genomic sequencing and would identify new variants if they emerged.
Watch Video “China’s Denial of Allegations of Not Being Transparent Regarding Covid-19“
(vyp/kna)
