In the massive corona wave in China, which is currently estimated at around a million new infections per day, concerns are growing about the development of new virus variants (see video above). The call for a flight stop is already being heard from abroad.
China’s health department has asked provincial authorities to regularly analyze samples of the virus and report the results. To discover new variants, China’s health department instructed provinces to select three hospitals in three cities to collect samples each week.
Observe possible symptoms in real time
Once the genomes are decoded, the results are reported within a week. In this way, “possible symptoms, transmission possibilities and pathogenicity of new variants with potential biological changes” could be observed in real time, the director of the virus institute of the public health department, Xu Wenbo, said, according to the Xinhua news agency.
Cessation of flight connections with the People’s Republic demanded
Out of fear of new virus variants, the foreign policy spokesman of the German Union faction, Jürgen Hardt, even called for the cessation of flight connections with the People’s Republic. “The exploding Covid figures in China as a result of the failed corona policy threaten the whole world with a new wave of infections,” the CDU MP told editorial network Germany (RND). “Only when we are sure that there is no threat of a new, dangerous mutation from China, can we resume flight connections.”
British medical professor reassured
But there were also other assessments of the risks. “I don’t think the situation in China poses a significant additional threat to many other countries,” said Paul Hunter, a British medical professor at the University of East Anglia in Norwich. “After all, most of the rest of the world has hybrid immunity,” said the expert, referring to protection against both vaccination and infection. New variants emerged all the time, but each time the possibilities seemed to diminish, the professor said.
Criticized abroad: China is downplaying the seriousness of the surge
The development is viewed with concern abroad as China downplays the size and severity of the wave of infection. Health authorities report only a few thousand infections per day, while model calculations by the London-based research institute Airfinity currently assume more than a million infections and more than 5,000 deaths per day. The wave will therefore have two peaks in January and March with a possible 3.7 million and 4.2 million cases per day, respectively.
China lifted its hard zero-Covid policy after three years
After nearly three years of lockdowns, enforced quarantines and mass testing, the world’s most populous country abruptly ended its hardline zero-Covid policy on December 7. The reason for the turnaround was that the infections with the new Omicron variants were no longer as serious. But experts saw the reason mainly in the fact that the strict measures could no longer be maintained in view of the explosive spread. The restrictions also placed increasing pressure on the second-largest economy.
Since then, the virus has spread rapidly among billions of people. Hospitals are full in many places. According to model calculations, hundreds of thousands of deaths are to be expected.
Source: Krone
I am Wallace Jones, an experienced journalist. I specialize in writing for the world section of Today Times Live. With over a decade of experience, I have developed an eye for detail when it comes to reporting on local and global stories. My passion lies in uncovering the truth through my investigative skills and creating thought-provoking content that resonates with readers worldwide.
