WHO says China COVID data shows no new variants found in country

GENEVA

The World Health Organization (WHO) said Wednesday that no new COVID-19 variants have been detected in China according to data from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The Chinese CDC presented data at a closed-door meeting of the WHO’s Technical Advisory Group on Virus Evolution on Tuesday. It was reported that Chinese scientists presented DNA data during the meeting from samples taken from cases of the SARS-CoV-2 virus of local origin and cases categorized as foreign origin.

The results reported for locally acquired illnesses are said to be based on DNA data from over 2,000 samples gathered as of Dec. 1, 2022.

According to the Chinese delegation's analyses, the subvariants BF.7 and BA.5.2 of the omicron virus were dominant locally and accounted for 97.5% of the local infections based on genome sequencing.

While several known omicron subvariants were found in the country, albeit at low rates, these subvariants were known and seen in other countries, according to the delegation, while no new variant was detected in the country.