The 2020 strain of the virus is back? Wuhan CDC response

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Recently, rumors have been circulating on the internet, is the 2020 strain of the virus back? Why do people have very different symptoms after infection? How many mutant strains of Omicron are currently circulating in Wuhan? With these questions in mind, we interviewed Yang Xiaobing, director of the Institute of Infectious Disease Prevention and Control at the Wuhan CDC.

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The company’s main business is to provide a wide range of products and services to the public. The surveillance data showed that the prevalent Omicron variant strain in Wuhan is still BA.5.2. Since October, all the viruses detected in the samples collected were BA.5.2 variant strains, and no other strains were found.

Due to various factors such as cold climate, many people in this outbreak have developed symptoms after virus infection, mainly fever, cough, muscle aches, dry throat, nasal congestion, diarrhea, etc., with significant upper respiratory symptoms. There were also cases of inflammation of the lungs, but the proportion of inflammation of the lungs was relatively small compared to the number of people who became ill.

The National Health and Wellness Commission issued an announcement on December 26 to rename novel coronavirus pneumonia to novel coronavirus infection. Since January 8, 2023, the new coronavirus infection will be adjusted from “Category B A” to “Category B B”.

Yang Xiaobing introduced, at present, there are 40 kinds of statutory infectious diseases in China, including 2 kinds of Class A infectious diseases, 27 kinds of Class B infectious diseases and 11 kinds of Class C infectious diseases. Class A infectious diseases include plague, cholera. After the occurrence of Class A infectious diseases, the time limit for reporting the epidemic, the isolation of patients and pathogen carriers, the way of treatment, and the treatment of epidemic sites and areas are mandatory. Category B infectious diseases, including the new crown, SARS, AIDS, viral hepatitis, etc., require strict control measures. Category C infectious diseases are surveillance and management infectious diseases, including influenza, mumps, etc.

After three years of changes, the main characteristics of the new coronavirus infection have also evolved to fever, headache, sore throat, cough and other symptoms of such upper respiratory tract infections, pneumonia is no longer the main symptom, and the health risks caused have been significantly reduced. However, it is important to note that novel coronavirus infection is still one of the pathogens that cause inflammation of the lungs. If you do not recover from the infection for a longer period of time and experience aggravation such as cough, fever and chest tightness, you should seek medical attention in a timely manner to prevent it from evolving into a serious illness.

Yang Xiaobing pointed out that, according to the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases Act, after the implementation of the new coronavirus infection “B class B control”, the new coronavirus infection no longer implement isolation measures, no longer determine the close contacts; the new coronavirus infection implementation of graded classification of treatment. Subsequent prevention and control work objectives will focus on “health protection, prevention of serious illness” to take appropriate measures to maximize the protection of people’s lives and health.