A leading government scientist said on 21 January that 80% of people had already been infected, and China’s CDC has repeatedly said over the past month that continued surveillance shows no new variants of COVID-19 have been found .
Several countries put in place COVID testing requirements for Chinese travelers in the wake of their massive outbreak, citing concerns that new variants could emerge and a lack of data, though China has said the measures are not justified.
Gao said China is continuing comprehensive viral genomic sequencing, and will identify any new variants if they emerge.
He said cases are currently declining, but “a new wave is possible in the future.”
The Chinese-funded study in The Lancet was conducted by researchers from the Beijing Center for Disease Prevention and Control, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the CDC, and the University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
The authors said the study had some limitations, including China’s decision to end large-scale mandatory testing.
In the CDC’s latest release on Wednesday, it said that from September 26, 2022, to February 6, 2023, 23,217 local cases of novel coronavirus genome valid sequences were reported nationwide, all of which were mutant strains of Omicron, with the main . Pandemic strains BA.5.2.48 (53.0%), BF.7.14 (24.1%) and BA.5.2.49 (14.8%).
A total of 13 cases of variants were found, including 1 case of XBB.1, 5 cases of BQ.1.1, 1 case of BQ.1.1.17, 4 cases of BQ.1.2 and 2 cases of BQ.1.8.