New Covid-19 strain found in China

The CCDC Weekly publication of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention said the case was “the first imported variant (UK) in China and represents a major potential threat to the prevention and control of COVID-19 in China”.

CCDC Weekly said the 23-year-old had a negative test for Covid-19 two days before her flight to China. Subsequent sequencing of his positive test revealed that it was different from a small outbreak of cases in Shanghai in November and from the Wuhan strains, where Covid-19 was first found.

The Covid-19 patient’s case was diagnosed as mild, the newspaper said, noting that several control measures were taken to isolate the woman and identify those who sat near or dealt with her on the flight.

News of the spread of the new strain to China comes a year after disease control authorities in central Wuhan issued an internal warning warning of the emergence of patients with pneumonia, detection of what was later called Covid-19 . Although life is now back to normal in most parts of China, the country has experienced new groups of the disease, avoiding the rigid blocks of the beginning of the year.

On Wednesday, China’s top regulatory agency approved the mass use of a vaccine produced by a Beijing-based drug development unit of the China National Pharmaceutical Group Co., more commonly known as Sinopharm.

In a New Year’s speech on Thursday, President Xi Jinping gave credit to China’s national spirit in response to the outbreak, which by official figures recorded almost 96,000 cases and 4,782 deaths. “We have overcome the impact of the pandemic and have made great strides in coordinating prevention and control and in economic and social development,” he said.

Reuters first reported the warning about detecting the UK strain in China. The CCDC Weekly newspaper, by authors affiliated with China’s leading disease prevention agencies, received little coverage in China’s mainstream state media.

This week, health officials said the new strain was first detected in the United States in a man in Colorado.

The strain was detected in the UK in September and in early December was responsible for more than 60% of new cases in London, local scientists said. UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson on December 19 imposed new blockades in the country, citing its easier transmission, which has prompted several other countries to suspend commercial flights to London.

China Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said on December 24 that China was accompanying other countries in the suspension of UK flights.

Write to James T. Areddy at [email protected]