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In the latest COVID surge, which comes just ahead of the 20th Party Congress, new Omicron sub-variants BF.7 and BA.5.1.7, which are highly infectious and more transmissible, have been detected in China.
- On Monday, the BF.7 subvariant spread to more Chinese provinces. The highly contagious virus was discovered for the first time in northwest China. The subvariant BA.5.1.7, on the other hand, was discovered for the first time in the Chinese mainland, according to Li Shujian, deputy director of the local disease prevention and control centre, as reported by Global Times.
Officials from the northern Chinese province of Shandong said that since October 4 locally-transmitted COVID-19 cases were triggered by variant BF.7. World Health Organization had given out a warning against the highly infectious BF.7 COVID subvariant. It has also expected the subvariant to become a new dominant variant.
- "Judging from the characteristics of BF.7, if decisive prevention measures were not adopted in time, there is high possibility that it could become the dominate variant in China as well," reported the Global Times quoting a professor as saying to a health-based newspaper.
China is the world's last major economy that is still enforcing strict zero-Covid measures, which aim to break down transmission chains through border restrictions and mass testing, extensive quarantines and unyielding lockdowns.
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