BEIJING: China has reported its first domestic cases of the Omicron subvariant known as BA.5－a highly-transmissible strain feared for its immunity-evading ability－renewing calls for accelerating COVID-19 vaccine booster campaigns.
Xi’an, capital of Northwest China’s Shaanxi province, confirmed on Tuesday that the latest outbreak hitting the city was caused by the BA.5 strain. As of Wednesday, the city had reported 33 infections. Officials in Beijing said on Wednesday that new infections registered in the capital since Tuesday were found to be BA.5, but its transmission chain was clear and controllable. The first imported case of BA.5 was discovered in an incoming traveler arriving in Shanghai from the Netherlands on April 27. The patient recovered and was released from hospital on May 12, according to an article published by China CDC Weekly, the national public health bulletin and an academic platform established by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention. The outbreaks sweeping large parts of China since February, including Shanghai, were mainly caused by the BA.2 Omicron subvariant, according to Wang Wenling, a researcher at China CDC’s National Institute for Viral Disease Control and Prevention. “Recently, the number of BA.4 and BA.5 cases found in inbound travelers has been on the rise,” she said during a news conference in late June. “Preliminary research shows that their transmissibility and ability to evade immunity have enhanced, increasing difficulties for China’s disease control work.”
–The Daily Mail-China Daily news exchange item
