China is going through a complicated situation after the outbreak of Covid infections caused by a new subline of Omicron. The strict Covid zero policy that the country has maintained since the beginning of the pandemic unleashed social chaoswhich is why the Government has recently decided to loosen the restrictions and allow the free mobility of citizens.
The end of the Government’s Covid zero policy triggered indicators of the pandemic in Chinaand in the last week the number of patients who went to hospital for symptoms compatible with a Covid infection has multiplied by six and by 16 people arriving with a fever.
The data is very worrying. Experts warn of collapse of hospitals, where 80% of the staff are infected and as a result, most of the trades had to be cancelled.
bf. 7, the variant responsible for the outbreak of infections in China
A new strain of the virus, a sublineage of BA.5, has set off all the alarms in China. It’s about BF.7 and it’s behind the escalation of infections in the country.
This new variant was detected shortly after the government relaxed the measures and preliminary studies that its contagion rate is up to three times higher than that of Ómicron: from 5.08 of BA.5 to between 10 and 18.6 of BF.7.
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In addition to the fact that its contagion capacity is higher than that of any of the previous variants, BF.7 is characterized by a shorter incubation period. Therefore, symptoms in patients infected with this variant appear sooner after infection. BF.7 also has a greater ability to reinfect people who are vaccinated or have already outgrown the disease.
The new strain has already been detected in Spain and the United States, where it is estimated that it is responsible for 5.7% of infections Until December 10th.
The seriousness of the situation has led some experts to warn about the spread of this new variant, not because of the seriousness of the cases, given that mortality has not increased for the moment, but because its rapid spread and reinfection capacity.
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Symptoms of BF.7
As a sublineage of BA.5, BF.7’s symptoms are similar to those of its predecessors. The most common are:
- Temperature
- Muscular pain
- Nasal congestion
- Mucus
- Fatigue
- Headache
