Corona wave in China: Beijing sees no need for action

The omicron variant is spreading rapidly in China after the abrupt end of the zero-Covid policy. The government has not provided precise data on the virus. Scientists propose to monitor pathogen strains worldwide.

The press conference of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs last Friday: Spokesman Wang Wenbin makes it clear that the state and party leadership considers the international concerns to be unfounded. Scientists from all over the world have made it clear that restrictions for travelers from China are not necessary.

But many governments see things differently and have already introduced mandatory tests before leaving China. Other states test upon arrival and do gene sequencing to detect possible mutations. Morocco has stopped all entry from China.

Beijing denies allegations

The World Health Organization called for more transparency at a meeting with Chinese officials on Friday. China has again been asked to collect precise real-time data and share it with the WHO, according to the United Nations Health Organization. Among other things, it is about numbers of patients in hospitals and intensive care units, deaths and vaccination rates. But also information on the genetic sequencing of cases that tested positive, which should provide a better overview of circulating virus variants, according to the WHO.

Since the outbreak of the pandemic, China has shared information and data with the rest of the international community, including the WHO, in a timely, open and transparent manner, spokesman Wang Wenbin denied the allegations. The allegations that China is not dealing transparently with the infection process are not new. But it was never as confusing as it is now.

There is no reliable data

After almost three years of mass tests, closed borders, travel bans and lockdowns, the state and party leadership surprisingly and largely unprepared announced the end of the zero-Covid policy on December 7th. Since then, the virus has been spreading rapidly among the 1.4 billion people in China, hardly anyone of whom has previously been infected with Corona and millions are not sufficiently vaccinated.

It is estimated that hundreds of millions of people have already been infected with Corona, and tens of thousands have died as a result of Covid disease. There is no reliable data. China has largely stopped testing.

Search for new variants

The epidemiologist Ben Cowling from the University of Hong Kong expects that up to a billion people in China will be infected with Corona this winter – more than 70 percent of the population. “As highly contagious as omicron is now, it’s hard to imagine lower infection rates. And that’s a lot of opportunity for the virus to evolve in a new direction, maybe into a new subvariant of omicron, or even a new variant.”

Such new variants or subtypes would normally be discovered somewhere in the world relatively quickly, says the virologist. Ideally, however, where they arise. “The best thing would be to do PCR testing and sequencing in China — not necessarily to the same extent as a month ago, but at least some testing, for example in hospitals or in neighborhoods,” Cowling said. This could be used to track how a circulating strain is evolving and where there are signs the virus is changing in ways that could pose a new threat to other parts of the world.

Regional Covid Surveillance Centers?

The Hong Kong virologist points out that there are still a high number of infections in other parts of the world. The virus can also mutate there. It is therefore important not only to monitor the infection process closely in China, but worldwide, says Cowling. He hopes that regional Covid surveillance centers will be set up in the near future, which will carry out sequencing across countries – similar to what is already done for the flu.

“Maybe there could be a European monitoring center in Germany or somewhere else that collects samples from all over Europe and does the sequencing to be able to tell what’s happening,” the scientist suggests. Because some parts of Europe and the world would barely sequence. They would not have the resources or capacity to do so. “But there are countries that would definitely be willing to do this so that we can monitor not just what’s happening in a single country, but what’s happening across all continents.”