Fears that China’s lifting of its zero-covid policy could lead to new coronavirus variants don’t seem to have happened (yet).
A Study published in The Lancet on Wednesday found the country had no new COVID-19 variants since it lifted its draconian policy last year, a move that triggered a surge in cases and deaths,
An analysis by researchers in China of more than 400 new cases in Beijing between November 14 and December 20 showed that more than 90 percent were of the omicron subvariants BA.5.2 and BF.7.
The European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) stated that these variants are similar to those circulating in the EU/EEA during the fall of 2022, before the increase in cases in China, and there is no evidence that they pose a greater risk. Are. Compared to those currently operating in the EU/EEA.
China has been criticized for a lack of transparency during the pandemic, including the most recent wave of infections.
But the European Union’s disease agency, the ECDC, confirmed that its own analysis – which included sequencing cases detected through airport arrivals in several European countries and waste analysis of airplanes arriving in Europe from China – had found that BA.5.2 and BF.7 were dominant, although they cautioned that this wastewater data is “quite limited and is still being verified.”
While the authors of the Lancet study conducted their analysis in Beijing, they write that the results “can be considered a snapshot of China.”
But others caution against such a leap.
Wolfgang Preiser and Tongai Maponga of the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa wrote in a linked commentary in The Lancet, “The SARS-CoV-2 molecular epidemiological profile in one region of a vast and densely populated country did not apply to the whole country.” May go.” Both were not involved in the study.
“In other areas of China, other evolutionary dynamics may have manifested, possibly including animal species that may have been infected by humans and spread back to a more evolved virus,” they write.
The prevalence of each of the two variants — BF.7 and Ba.5.2 — varies from province to province, World Health Organization spokesman Christian Lindmeier told POLITICO, citing data from the China CDC.
travel control
EU boosted by China lifting its zero-COVID policies late last year countries Recommend to A raft of travel tips for visitors from China.
At its last meeting on Friday, the EU’s genuine emergency crisis forum, the IPCR, decided maintain This solution for now. The issue will be re-evaluated in the next IPCR meeting to be held on February 16.
Europe’s airport lobby, ACI Europe, says it would like passenger testing to be scrapped.
“We support the move away from testing of travelers as a way to track COVID-19, especially given the ECDC’s continued lack of expected impact of the COVID-19 surge in China on the epidemiological situation in the EU In the context of a comprehensive assessment / EEA. Airports and airlines call for any travel recommendation to be scientifically driven and risk-based, which regrettably is no longer the case,” European airport lobby , Agata Łyżnik, communications manager at ACI Europe, told Politico.
With additional reporting from Mari Eccles.