China COVID Outbreak: Omicron's BA.5.2 and BF.7 sub-variants wreaking havoc in China: WHO

The World Health Organization (WHO) informed on Wednesday that according to data released by China, people in China are getting infected only by Omicron's sub-variants BA.5.2 and BF.7. According to the news agency ANI, both these sub-variants are responsible for 97.5 percent of the infected cases.

Noting the figures, the WHO informed that it will continue to closely monitor the situation in the People's Republic of China and globally. At the same time, WHO has urged all countries to be vigilant, monitor and report sequences as well as conduct independent and comparative analyses.

BA.5.2 and BF.7 sub-variants found prominently in China

The WHO said in a statement that the Technical Advisory Group on the Development of the Virus (TAG-VE) held a meeting with the Chinese Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday. According to this statement, the Chinese CDC analysis found Omicron sub-variants BA.5.2 and BF.7 to be dominant in COVID infections. Explain that China has introduced genomic data. In which the CDC of China has mentioned cases coming from outside and locally acquired SARS-CoV-2 infection.

According to the World Health Organisation, as of January 3, 773 sequences from China have been deposited in the GISAID EpiCoV database, with the majority (564 sequences) collected after December 1, 2022. Of those, only 95 have been reported as locally attributed cases. In 187 cases, information has been given to come from outside and no information has been given regarding 261 sequences. Of the locally acquired cases, 95 percent are of the BA.5.2 or BF.7 lineage. This is consistent with the genomes of travelers from China that have been deposited by others into the GISAID EpiCoV database.

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