Key Takeaways:
- Shanghai has discovered a COVID-19 incident with the unique subvariant Omicron BA.5.2.1, according to a briefing on Sunday.
According to a briefing on Sunday, the city of Shanghai has found a COVID-19 instance involving the novel subvariant Omicron BA.5.2.1. This indicates the challenges China confronts in keeping up with new mutations as it pursues its “zero-COVID” policy.
Zhao Dandan, the vice-director of the city’s health commission, claimed that the case discovered in Pudong’s business area on July 8 was connected to a case from abroad.
At the beginning of June, Shanghai, in eastern China, ended a lockdown that had lasted almost two months. Still, it has since continued to apply strict regulations, locking down buildings, including compounds, as soon as new possible transmission chains appear.
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According to Zhao of the Shanghai health commission, “Our city has recently continued to record more locally transmitted positive cases (of COVID-19), and the risk of the epidemic spreading across society remains quite high.”
He declared that two rounds of COVID tests would be administered to citizens in several significant Shanghai districts between July 12 and 14 to contain any potential new outbreaks.
As per the China Center for Disease Prevention and Control, the Omicron BA.5 variant, which is driving a fresh wave of COVID-19 infections abroad, was first identified in China on May 13 in a 37-year-old male patient who had flown from Uganda to Shanghai.
According to Yuan Zhengan, a member of the city’s expert advisory panel on COVID prevention, variant BA.5 has been demonstrated to have an accelerated transmission rate and an improved immune escape capability. She was speaking during the Sunday briefing.
However, he continued, immunization is still useful in preventing major diseases or death brought on by BA.5.
Source: CTV News
