Amid rising Covid cases, the Shanghai Health Commission has cautioned that more locally transmitted positive cases of the virus have recently been reported in the city. The commission also stated that the probability of the epidemic spreading locally is still high.
Shanghai, a city in eastern China, has discovered a case with a novel subvariant of Omicron BA.5.2.1 after emerging from a two-month lockdown. An official pointed out during a briefing on Sunday about the difficulties China experiences in keeping up with new mutations as it pursues its "zero-Covid" strategy.
The case was discovered in the financial district of Pudong on July 8.
Zhao Dandan, vice-director of the city's health commission, mentioned that the case was linked with a case from overseas. As new potential transmission chains arise, Shanghai has continued to apply severe restrictions by shutting down buildings and compounds.
He said, "Our city has recently continued to report more locally transmitted positive cases (of COVID-19) and the risk of the epidemic spreading through society remains very high,".
Zhao stated that two rounds of Covid tests would be administered to citizens in major Shanghai districts between July 12 and 14 to control any potential new outbreaks.
It was on May 13 that the first case of the Omicron BA.5 variant was discovered in China. The China Center for Disease Prevention and Control revealed that the infection was detected in a 37-year-old male patient who reached Shanghai from Uganda.
Speaking at the Sunday briefing, Yuan Zhengan, a member of the city's expert advisory group on Covid prevention, said that Variant BA.5 indicated an accelerated transmission rate and improved immune escape capability. He added that vaccination is still effective at preventing BA.5 from causing severe illness or death.
