China Finds New Iteration of Omicron Variant as Covid-19 Tally Crosses First Wave Peak

China reported 13,000 Covid cases on Sunday, the most since the peak of the first pandemic wave over two years ago, as health officials said they have found a suspected new subtype of the Omicron variant in the Shanghai area. The country’s “Zero-Covid” strategy is under extreme pressure as the virus rages across cities.

Officials in Suzhou, a city 30 minutes west of Shanghai, have detected a mutation of the Omicron variant not found in local or international databases, state media reported on Sunday.

“This means a new variant of Omicron has been discovered locally,” Xinhua said, citing health official Zhang Jun, deputy director of the Suzhou Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

The new iteration of the virus, isolated from a mild Covid-19 patient in a city less than 70 kilometers (43 miles) from Shanghai, evolves from the BA.1.1 branch of the omicron variant, Global Times reported, citing sequencing data from local health authorities.

The report said the subtype doesn’t match other coronavirus that’s causing Covid in China nor those submitted to GISAID, where scientists around the world share the coronavirus they sequenced as a way to monitor mutations.

Until March, China had successfully kept the daily caseload down to double or triple digits, with hard, localised lockdowns, mass testing and travel restrictions.

But cases have surged over recent weeks to thousands each day, especially in the outbreak epicentre of Shanghai, where streets were eerily empty on Sunday as 25 million people stayed in under lockdown orders.

Nearly 70 percent of the national caseload was found in Shanghai, the commission said, after mass testing the metropolis’ 25 million residents.

City authorities have admitted that they are struggling to contain the outbreak, with thousands now in state quarantine and reports circulating of health workers being stretched.

Vice Premier Sun Chunlan stressed upon “resolute and swift moves” to snuff out the outbreak after a visit to Shanghai, Xinhua reported Sunday.

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