COVID-19 infections in China remain at low level: health authorities

The number of COVID-19 infections in China has remained at a low level while no new unknown viruses and bacteria have been found from among respiratory diseases in the country, a health official said on Sunday. 

At a press conference held in Beijing, Chang Zhaorui, a researcher with the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said though the infection cases of the COVID-19 sub-variant JN.1 are reported in many countries around the world, its overall public health risk is low. 

"The COVID-19 sub-variant JN.1 is a sublineage of the Omicron BA.2.86 variant. The global monitoring results show that since the beginning of November, the spread of the BA.2.86 variant, especially the JN.1 sublineage, has obviously accelerated, and it has become one of the dominant variants in some countries," Chang said.

On November 21, the World Health Organization redefined the BA.2.86 from a variant under monitoring to a variant of interest. The risk of its clinical severe infection has been evaluated as low, and its overall public health risk has been evaluated as low, she said.

China's monitoring results of the COVID-19 variants showed that since the first imported case of mutant strain BA.2.86 was reported on August 31, 160 BA.2.86 and its sub-variant infection cases have been reported across the country, comprising 148 imported cases and 12 local cases, and no severe and critical cases have been found.

The country has also seen a decreasing trend in the overall diagnosis and treatment volume of cases related to respiratory diseases in emergency and outpatient departments of medical facilities, said Mi Feng, a spokesperson for the National Health Commission, adding that fever clinics at the primary level have effectively met the medical needs of patients.

Read more: China detects 7 cases of COVID-19 subvariant JN.1

(With input from Xinhua)