Issued on: 29/12/2022 - 03:50Modified: 29/12/2022 - 03:48
China
has scrapped quarantine for inbound travellers from January 8, dismantling the
last piece of its zero-Covid policy © Noel CELIS / AFP/File
Paris (AFP) – An explosion of Covid-19
cases in China as the country lifts its zero-Covid measures could create a
"potential breeding ground" for new variants to emerge, health
experts warn.
China announced this week that incoming travellers would no longer
have to quarantine from January 8, the latest major reversal of strict restrictions
that have kept the country largely closed off to the world since the start of
the pandemic.
While the country's National Health Commission has stopped issuing
daily case numbers, officials in several cities estimate that hundreds of
thousands of people have been infected in recent weeks. Hospitals and
crematoriums have been overwhelmed across the country.
With the virus now able to circulate among nearly one-fifth of the
world's population -- almost all of whom lack immunity from previous infection
and many of whom remain unvaccinated -- other nations and experts fear China
will become fertile ground for new variants.
Antoine Flahault, director of the Institute of Global Health at
the University of Geneva, told AFP that each new infection increased the chance
the virus would mutate.
"The fact that 1.4 billion people are suddenly exposed to
SARS-CoV-2 obviously creates conditions prone to emerging variants,"
Flahault said, referring to the virus that causes the Covid-19 disease.
Bruno Lina, a virology professor at France's Lyon University, told
the La Croix newspaper this week that China could become a "potential
breeding ground for the virus".
Soumya Swaminathan, who served as the World Health Organization's
chief scientist until November, said a large part of the Chinese population was
vulnerable to infection in part because many elderly people had not been
vaccinated or boosted.
"We need to keep a close watch on any emerging concerning
variants," she told the website of the Indian Express newspaper.
Countries
test Chinese travellers
In response to the surging cases, the United States, Italy, Japan,
India and Malaysia announced this week they would increase health measures for
travellers from China.
The lack of transparent data from China -- particularly about
viral genomic sequencing -- is making it "increasingly difficult for
public health officials to ensure that they will be able to identify any
potential new variants and take prompt measures to reduce the spread", US
officials said Tuesday.
Some countries have announced mandatory testing on passengers
arriving from China © Noel CELIS / AFP
India
and Japan have already said they will impose mandatory PCR testing on all
passengers from China, a measure Flahault said could be a way around any delays
in information from Beijing.
"If
we succeed to sample and sequence all viruses identified from any travellers
coming in from China, we will know almost as soon as new variants emerge and
spread" in the country, he said.
Variant
'soup'
Xu
Wenbo, head of the virus control institute at China's Centre for Disease
Control and Prevention, said last week that hospitals across the country would
collect samples from patients and upload the sequencing information to a new
national database, allowing authorities to monitor possible new strains in
real-time.
More
than 130 Omicron sublineages have been newly detected in China over the last
three months, he told journalists.
Among
those were XXB and BQ.1 and their sublineages, which have been spreading in the
US and parts of Europe in recent months as a swarm of subvariants has competed
for dominance worldwide.
However
BA.5.2 and BF.7 remain the main Omicron strains detected in China, Xu said,
adding that the varying sublineages would likely circulate together.
Hospitals across China have been overwhelmed
by an influx of mostly elderly people © Noel Celis / AFP
Flahault said "a soup" of more than
500 new Omicron subvariants had been identified in recent months, although it
had often been difficult to tell where each had first emerged.
"Any variants, when more transmissible than
the previous dominant ones -- such as BQ.1, B2.75.2, XBB, CH.1, or BF.7 --
definitely represent threats, since they can cause new waves," he said.
"However, none of these known variants
seems to exhibit any particular new risks of more severe symptoms to our
knowledge, although that might happen with new variants in the coming
future."
© 2022 AFP
https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20221229-soaring-china-covid-cases-increase-risk-of-new-variants-experts
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China expert says Covid 'spreading rapidly' after rules easing
https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20221211-top-china-expert-says-covid-spreading-rapidly-after-rules-easing
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