Experts say a lack of data makes it difficult to assess the risk of potential new Covid strains with travel to the long sealed-off country set to resume
“They’ve changed very quickly from a zero Covid approach to completely relaxing things, so maybe that’s happened too quickly to keep up,” Prof. Dwyer, who was one of the expertsWhile official statistics from China report just three new Covid deaths for Tuesday,there are now more than one million cases and more than 5,000 new infections each day.
Experts say the lack of data is likely masking the number and severity of cases, and physicians in China are reporting a massive infection and death surge. Beijing-based doctor Howard BernsteinAs a result, nearby countries are taking their own measures to prevent a surge of infections. WHO director general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has called on China to share data and conduct relevant studies to help the world understand which Covid variants are circulating. At a briefing on 21 December, Ghebreyesus said; “WHO is very concerned over the evolving situation in China with increasing reports of severe disease”.
Prolonged lockdowns in China also mean a significant proportion of the population have not been infected with newer variants, and the Sinovac and Sinopharm vaccines China has relied on appear less effective than mRNA vaccines used elsewhere.“So therefore monitoring people returning from China who are sick is going to be important. We don’t know … whether those variants [in China] are any different to what we’ve seen elsewhere.
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