The outbreak of Covid-19 cases in China, accelerated by the lifting of restrictive measures, has health experts fearing the appearance of several hundred sub-variants worldwide, including BF.7, which worries France , as reported by AFP.
- China has just announced the end on January 8 of mandatory quarantines on arrival in the country, the last remnant of the policy of strict restrictions that have kept the country largely closed to the world since the start of the pandemic.
- In response to the surge in cases, the United States, Italy, Japan, India and Malaysia indicated this week that they would tighten their border controls.
- Washington will require a negative Covid test from January 5 for all travelers coming by plane from China.
With the end of the “zero-Covid” policy in China, Covid-19 infections are exploding in the country. This alarming situation worries many health experts, because it could be the ideal ground for the emergence of new variants, the virus being now free to circulate in a country which has almost a fifth of the population in the world. , with a poorly vaccinated population. Certain variants in particular, such as BQ.1, CH.1 or even BF.7, crystallize fears.
Covid-19: at least 250 million people infected in China
While the Chinese government has decided to no longer publish the number of daily Covid-19 cases, officials in several cities estimate that hundreds of thousands of people have recently been infected, while hospitals and crematoriums are overwhelmed. Since the lifting of health restrictions, “at least 250 million people have been infected in China”said this Tuesday, December 27 Christian Bréchot, virologist and president of the Global Virus Network on BFM TVstating that until now “around 660 million cases” had been detected worldwide since the start of the pandemic in March 2020.
Each new infection increases the chances that the virus will mutate, estimates Antoine Flahault, director of the Institute of Global Health at the University of Geneva. “The fact that 1.4 billion people are suddenly exposed to Sars-CoV-2 obviously creates conditions conducive to the emergence of variants”, he explained to Agence France-Presse (AFP). Bruno Lina, professor of virology at the University of Lyon, France, meanwhile told the newspaper The cross : “Given the intense circulation of the virus, and therefore the increased risk of mutations, a potential pool of virus could emerge from China”.
“We need to closely monitor any emergence of worrying variants”
Soumya Swaminathan, former chief scientist of the World Health Organization (WHO) until November, also pointed out that a significant part of the Chinese population is vulnerable, especially since many elderly people have not been vaccinated. . “We need to closely monitor any emergence of worrying variants”she told the newspaper’s website Indian Express.
The French government assuresfollow very closely the evolution of the situation“, and said to himself “ready to study all useful measures“. Some neighboring countries, such as India and Japan, have decided to impose mandatory PCR tests on all passengers arriving from China, a measure which, according to Antoine Flahault, could be a way to compensate for the lack of information from Beijing. “If we succeed in sampling and sequencing all viruses identified in all travelers from China, we will know almost immediately if new variants are emerging and spreading” in the country, he said.
Over 500 new Omicron subvariants identified in recent months
More than 130 new sublineages of the Omicron variant have been detected in China in the past three months, the head of the virus control institute at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Xu Wenbo, said last week. . Among them are XXB and BQ.1 and their own sub-lineages, which have spread to the United States and several European countries in recent months. However, BA.5.2 and BF.7 remain the main Omicron strains detected in China, Xu Wenbo said, adding that the different sublineages are likely to co-circulate.
“A soup” more than 500 new sub-variants of Omicron have been identified in recent months, recalled Antoine Flahault. “All variants, when more transmissible than previously dominant variants – such as BQ.1, B2.75.2, XBB, CH.1 or BF.7 – definitely represent threats, as they can cause new waves”added the epidemiologist. “Today, none of these variants appear to pose particular new risks of more severe symptoms, but new variants may in the near future”he warned.