According to a recent study released on Wednesday, there were no new COVID-19 variants found in Beijing in the weeks following the conclusion of China zero-COVID policy in late 2017.
After beginning to relax its tight pandemic safeguards in early December, China experienced a surge in illnesses, raising concerns that the world’s most populous nation might become a breeding ground for new, more contagious or severe strains.
More than a dozen nations swiftly put further restrictions on visitors from China, alleging a lack of transparency over the scope of the outbreak as well. This infuriated Beijing.
However, a recent study by Chinese researchers found “no evidence that novel variations occurred” during that time after analysing 413 samples from Beijing sequenced between November 14 and December 20.
Instead, Omicron subvariants BF.7 and BA5.2 accounted for more than 90% of the instances. More transmissible subvariants replaced these subvariants in Western countries, but they were already present in China.
According to the research reported in The Lancet journal, BF.7 made up 75% of the samples, while BA5.2 made up more than 15%.
“Omicron Variants in Beijing: Short Study Sparks Need for More Data”
George Gao, a virologist at the Institute of Microbiology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, is the lead study author. “Our analysis suggests two known Omicron sub-variants — rather than any new variants — have chiefly been responsible for the current surge in Beijing, and likely China as a whole,” he said in a statement.
“The study by George Gao, a virologist at the Institute of Microbiology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, suggests that two known Omicron sub-variants are mainly responsible for the current surge in Beijing and likely in China as a whole,” George stated in a statement.
They said in a Lancet comment piece, “If new lineages were to develop in the course of the surge, the study was probably too early to identify them.
They continued, “China has also drastically reduced its testing, which may have an impact on the results, which also only cover Beijing and not the entire nation.”
The virologists welcomed the “much-needed data from China.”
“Hope arises that the study will lead to more openness and rapid exchange of data, despite some nations imposing relative
