After the end of the “zero COVID” no new variants have emerged in China

Genome analysis of 413 new COVID-19 infections in Beijing during the time period China lifted its stricter pandemic control policies suggests they were all caused by existing variants.

This is the main conclusion of a study published in The Lancet, in which its authors point out that the results can be considered “a snapshot” of the current state of the pandemic in that country.

“Given the impact that variants have had on the course of the pandemic, it was important to investigate whether new variants had emerged following recent changes in COVID-19 prevention and control policies in China.”, says lead author George Gao, from the Institute of Microbiology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

The analysis suggests that two known sub-variants of omicron have been primarily responsible for the current rally in Beijing, and likely China as a whole.

“However, with the current large-scale circulation of COVID-19 in China, it is important that we continue to closely monitor the situation so that any new variants that may emerge are detected as soon as possible.”, sums up the researcher.

For this work, the authors analyzed samples of COVID-19 detected in Beijing in 2022.

Thus, out of a total of 2,881 high-quality sequences included in the study, 413 were randomly selected, which were sequenced between November 14 – when infections began to increase sharply – and December 20, 2022. Of these, 350 were local cases and 63 imported.

The analysis of the 413 sequences revealed that all of them belong to known and existing variants of COVID-19.

The dominant variant in Beijing after November 14, 2022 was BF.7, responsible for 75.7% of local infections. Another omicron subvariant, BA5.2, was responsible for 16.3% of the local cases.

Imported cases during the same period mostly involved variants other than those dominant in Beijing.

Source: EFE