China battles a nationwide outbreak of the coronavirus after abruptly easing restrictions that were in place for much of the pandemic. AP.
Beijing: XBB strain of Covid-19 which is spreading like wildfire in several US states, including New York, is expected to enter China which has been battling with a spike in cases and trigger a new round of large-scale infections, warned a scientist.
“It’s foreseeable that after the current wave peaks in China, XBB can enter the country to trigger a new round of large-scale infections,” Peking University biochemist Cao Yunlong was quoted as saying by state-run China News Service.
BQ.1.1 and XBB are the two Covid-19 variants that have been circulating in the US and Europe over the past two months. They have shown greater ability to evade immunity from a previous infection or vaccine.
“As XBB.1.5 is set to become the dominant one globally very soon, it deserves our close attention,” Beijing-based news magazine People quoted Cao as saying.
China to see repeat infection waves
China continues to grapple mounting Covid-19 cases. Hospitals overwhelmed with patients, morgues piled with bodies and long queues at crematorium are giving worrying pictures of Beijing and amid this, scientists have sounded alarms saying China will confront multiple waves of coronavirus.
Virologist Shan-Lu Liu from The Ohio State University in US said, “China will likely follow the trend, and repeat infection waves as seen in other parts of the world.”
Liu further said the dominant strains so far in China — Omicron subvariants BA.5.2 and BF.7 — had the highest rate of reinfection.
Liu said as Covid-19 vaccine protection wanes, reinfection rates would spike.
Covid reinfection
Reinfections have become common, however, scientists are still trying to understand the basics of why people who have already recovered from Covid-19 are getting infected again.
Also, studies are carried out to understand how often the reinfections occurs, how severe are they compared to initial infection and what their long-term health effects.
According to a study led by Peking University, researchers examined 6.6 million cases across the world and concluded that the average reinfection rate of all pre-Omicron variants was around 2 per cent.
Notably, China will reopen its borders on 8 January after almost three years, allowing people to enter the country without PCR tests or quarantine. The decision has left many worried as they feel the move might enable new strains to come into the country.
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