Omicron subvariants driving China's latest Covid outbreak, says WHO

CHINA’S recent Covid-19 outbreak is predominantly led by the Omicron subvariants BA.5.2 and BF.7, which together account for 97.5 per cent of all local infections, the World Health Organization said on Wednesday (Jan 4).

The data was based on an analysis of more than 2,000 genomes by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the WHO said.

The agency also said the data was in line with genomes from travellers from China submitted to the global database by other countries, and no new variant or mutation of known significance was noted in the publicly available sequence data.

The data comes from a briefing by China’s top scientists to the UN agency’s technical advisory group on Tuesday as concerns grow about the rapid spread of the virus in the world’s No 2 economy.

The UN agency had asked the scientists to present detailed data on viral sequencing, to get better clarity on hospitalisations, deaths and vaccinations. REUTERS