No New Variants , Emerged in Recent Chinese, COVID Outbreak, Study Suggests.
NBC reports that an analysis of COVID cases
in Beijing suggests that China's recent outbreak
did not lead to the emergence of any new variants.
On December 7, the Chinese government dropped
most restrictions amid rare mass unrest after
nearly three years of strict "zero-COVID" policies.
Following the sudden change, an outbreak occurred as
the population of 1.4 billion was exposed to COVID after
spending the majority of the pandemic under strict lockdowns.
According to a Chinese-funded study, which was
published in 'The Lancet,' 413 samples tested from
Beijing were all linked to existing COVID variants.
The study found that over 90% of local
infections were found to be Omicron
subvariants BA.5.2 and BF.7.
Our analysis suggests two known
Omicron subvariants — rather than
any new variants — have chiefly been
responsible for the current surge
in Beijing, and likely China as a whole, George Gao, professor at the Institute of Microbiology
in the Chinese Academy of Sciences, via NBC.
However, with ongoing large-scale
circulation of COVID-19 in China,
it is important we continue to monitor
the situation closely so that any
new variants that might emerge are
found as early as possible, George Gao, professor at the Institute of Microbiology
in the Chinese Academy of Sciences, via NBC.
NBC points out that the study was conducted
early in the recent outbreak, and the sampling
was limited to only the city of Beijing.
In December, China ended mandatory testing, which
makes it difficult to know the total number of cases or
the percentage of cases represented by the samples.
At the time, Zeng Guang, former chief epidemiologist
at the Chinese CDC, said that over 80% of people
in Beijing had likely contracted COVID