New Covid variants in China? Top scientist's 'keep calm and carry on' message

The world should "calm down" about the possibility of new Covid variants circulating in China, top Chinese scientist George Gao said, as per news agency Reuters which cited a paper by George Gao and his colleagues published in the Lancet medical journal.

The paper showed that no new variants had emerged in the initial weeks of China's recent outbreak as Beijing ended its strict 'Zero-Covid' policy which led to a massive surge in infections.

"The world should completely calm down from the fear that there are new variants or special variants circulating (in China)," George Gao, professor at the Institute of Microbiology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and former head of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said as per Reuters.

The scientist also said that the variants causing infections in China were the same Omicron sub-variants - BA.5.2 and BF.7- that have been seen elsewhere in the world. Analysing 413 new Covid cases in Beijing from November 14 to December 20, 2022, the study concluded that all the infections were likely caused by existing strains as 90% of the majority-locally acquired infections were due to two sub-variants.

The findings are representative of the entire country, the study noted, while the leading scientist said that China was continuing widespread viral genomic sequencing which would help to identify any new variants if they emerged.

George Gao said cases were currently declining, but "a new wave is possible in the future."

The Chinese-funded Lancet study was conducted by researchers from the Beijing Center for Disease Prevention and Control, Chinese Academy of Sciences, CDC and University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Reuters reported.

China ended more than three years of a stringent zero-Covid policy which included city-wide lockdowns, mass testing and extensive quarantine.