Tianjin native virus is mainly BF.7 and BA.5.2, and the XBB series mutant strains have been monitored by the immigration staff

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January 8, 2023, Tianjin on the new coronavirus infection “category B B control”. The director of the CDC and deputy director of the city’s Health and Wellness Commission, Han Jinyan, said that “Class B B control” is by no means disregarded and that neo-coronavirus infection is still a statutory infectious disease.

The elderly who are eligible for vaccination should be vaccinated against the new coronavirus as early as possible to protect themselves, and everyone should pay more attention to personal protection. At present, the city’s native virus is dominated by Omicron BF.7 and BA.5.2. The city will continue to strengthen virus surveillance in the future, dig deeper into the data according to the monitoring situation, and scientifically analyze and suggest corresponding measures.

Han Jinyan said, after the implementation of the new coronavirus infection “Class B B management”, one of the most important work is to accelerate the promotion of the elderly and key personnel new coronavirus vaccination work. From the data of domestic and foreign epidemics, including Tianjin, the elderly, especially those with underlying diseases, are the most economical and effective means to prevent serious illnesses and deaths after full vaccination with the neo-coronavirus vaccine, especially after booster immunization. Since January 8, 2022, the city has been in the first domestic battle against Omicron, and has basically been in the midst of an epidemic for the past year, simultaneously promoting vaccination against the new coronavirus. Today, the city’s focus has shifted from “prevention of infection” to “health protection and prevention of serious illnesses,” and the increased efforts to promote vaccination are among the most important measures.

The city first mapped out the number of elderly people over 60 years old, to find out who had not yet been vaccinated and who were temporarily unable to be vaccinated because of infection. The city will form a task list based on the mapping situation, strengthen administrative supervision and oversight, and urge all districts and streets to give eligible elderly people as much as possible, and provide home vaccination services for those who have difficulty getting downstairs for medical reasons, and take appropriate protective measures when vaccinating. In addition, the city’s Epidemic Prevention and Control Command is also communicating with the appropriate vaccine companies to provide more vaccination equipment to facilitate door-to-door services, and also to save the waiting time of the elderly at the vaccination clinics and reduce crowd gathering.

At present, the city’s Epidemic Prevention and Control Command is scheduling the vaccination of the new coronavirus on a daily basis, and has set up a scheduling app especially with the help of information technology, asking each district and street to fill in the progress, and informing the city about the slow progress of vaccination. The purpose of this is to evaluate the vaccination situation of key populations in the city at all stages, and to make every effort to speed up and build a high-quality immunization barrier in accordance with the general principle of “government finding people, industry mobilization, and health vaccination”. The most important purpose of the city’s increased efforts to promote this is to hope that the elderly who are eligible for vaccination can be vaccinated as early as possible to protect themselves.

Han Jinyan said, after the implementation of the new coronavirus infection “B class B management”, but also to strengthen the monitoring and response to the virus mutation. We are very concerned about the mutation of the virus, according to the recent monitoring by the CDC, the local virus in Tianjin is still dominated by Omicron BF.7 and BA.5.2, with BF.7 accounting for 62% and BA.5.2 accounting for 38%. Of course, various subtypes of BQ, BQ.1, BN and other variant strains of Omicron have been detected among inbound persons in Tianjin, and the XBB series of variant strains, which has attracted more attention recently, has also been detected before. With the corresponding quarantine measures now no longer being implemented for incoming personnel, the city is even more important to strengthen virus surveillance, dig deeper into the data based on the overall epidemic surveillance, and scientifically analyze and suggest appropriate measures. “Category B B control” is by no means regardless of the new coronavirus infection is still a statutory infectious disease, if the outbreak of the formation of aggregated epidemic is still necessary to take the suspension of aggregated activities, suspension of classes, suspension of work, confined places to restrict the flow of measures, these are in accordance with the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases Act on the implementation of the necessary control measures for category B infectious diseases.

After the implementation of the new coronavirus infection “B class B control”, nucleic acid testing policy adjustment is also closely related to the people. Han Jinyan said that the previous organization of full nucleic acid testing is to prevent and control the epidemic, now although the adjustment of the population testing strategy to implement the willingness to test, some citizens still need to test, who need to test? These include patients attending fever clinics, patients with respiratory infections, and patients who are hospitalized because of the corresponding symptoms, are clearly required to undergo antigen or nucleic acid testing. In addition is the focus of institutions, such as nursing home staff clearly specified at least twice a week nucleic acid testing, nursing homes are cared for the elderly, children in orphanages, etc. require at least twice a week antigen or nucleic acid testing, visiting staff required to hold a negative nucleic acid certificate within 48 hours and carry out antigen testing on-site. People such as the elderly in nursing homes can be life-threatening if infected, so they are protected by nucleic acid testing. At the same time, the city also recommends the elderly people in these nursing homes to go for vaccination as early as possible to protect themselves if they are eligible for vaccination.

Han Jinyan reminded the public that with the implementation of the new coronavirus infection “Category B B tube”, personal protection actually becomes more important. You should wear a mask when you go to public places, pay attention to hand hygiene and keep a social distance of more than one meter; you should ventilate your home and do some preventive disinfection; elderly people should try to reduce going to places where people gather. With the Chinese New Year coming up, it is especially important to minimize the gathering of people; if there are elderly people with serious underlying illnesses in the family, it is important to minimize visits to reduce the chances of carrying the virus that causes them to be infected and to better protect them.