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People in Shenyang City in Liaoning Province, China, wait for the COVID-19 sample to be tested on December 31 – Photo: AFP
Variation B.1.1.7 has the potential to spread faster than the original variant, with more than 50 countries restricting travel with the UK. On December 24, China suspended flights to the UK indefinitely after the variant exploded in fog.
According to the China Center for Disease Control, the patient is a 23-year-old woman living in Shanghai who just returned from England on December 14. After showing mild symptoms of COVID-19, she was admitted to the hospital and examined.
The results showed that the patient was positive for the new strain of corona virus, but the variant was not found in Shanghai or Wuhan. Later, further tests confirmed that she was infected with the B.1.1.7 variant, which is believed to have appeared in the UK as of October 2020.
Chinese authorities have tracked down and quarantined those who have come into contact with the aforementioned patient. According to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, B.1.1.7 is 70% more infectious than the original variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
The AFP news agency quoted experts as saying that there is no evidence that variant B.1.1.7 makes people worse or is at higher risk of death.
China is the latest country to register patients infected with variant B.1.1.7 after Canada, Australia, India, Japan, South Korea … There is no evidence that COVID-19 vaccines are currently invalidated with B .1.1.7.
In other related developments on December 31, the National Health Products Administration of China authorized the conditional mass vaccination of the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Sinopharm. This vaccine has been clinically tested in many countries with an efficacy of only 79.34%.
