Where did the Jilin epidemic come from?

How to develop?

The reporter connected with Zhao Qinglong, chief expert on infectious disease prevention and control in Jilin Province

  Member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and Vice Premier Sun Chunlan of the State Council pointed out when investigating and guiding the epidemic prevention and control work in Jilin Province that the current epidemic situation in Jilin Province is still at a high level, and community transmission has not been completely blocked.

  In the face of the severe epidemic situation, on March 14, in order to reduce the spillover and spread of the epidemic caused by inter-provincial and inter-regional flows, Jilin Province issued a notice to prohibit the inter-provincial and inter-regional movement of people in the province.

At present, Jilin Province is going through the World War I exam with the most severe situation, the most direct challenge and the most complicated work since the normalization of epidemic prevention and control.

  On March 17, Zhao Qinglong, the chief expert on the prevention and control of infectious diseases in Jilin Province and the director of the Emergency Office of the Jilin Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention, had a video connection with a reporter from the People's Daily to answer some questions that everyone cares about in the current round of epidemic in Jilin.

  Why is the current round of epidemic situation in Jilin so severe?

  Reporter: Why is the current round of epidemic in Jilin so serious?

In particular, the increase from the tens of hundreds of digits in the past few days to the recent daily average of thousands of digits, what do you think is the main reason for this situation?

  Zhao Qinglong: There are several reasons.

The first reason is that the new coronavirus strain that caused this outbreak in Jilin Province is the evolutionary branch of the Omicron variant BA.2.

The characteristics of this BA.2 evolutionary branch are that the transmission ability is very strong, the transmission speed is very fast, and the symptoms of infected people after infection are very atypical, and there are many asymptomatic infections.

According to our epidemiological investigation, the virus was introduced into our province in late February, and when it was discovered, community transmission had already occurred.

  The second reason is that spring is a season of high incidence of respiratory infectious diseases. After the Spring Festival, the mobility of people has increased, which has accelerated the spread of this epidemic.

There is also the opening season. At the end of February and the beginning of March, major colleges and universities and some primary and secondary schools have started school.

After the virus was introduced into schools, because schools are crowded places, the virus spread rapidly in schools, resulting in a high number of school students infected.

  Another is that through our epidemiological investigation, when the outbreak first occurred, it was in rural areas.

People in rural areas communicate more frequently, and everyone is familiar with each other. They gather together for dinners, parties, and some attend funerals.

These are a very important reason for detonating this epidemic.

  After the outbreak, our province dispatched dozens of nucleic acid testing vehicles and many nucleic acid testing personnel to support the epidemic prevention and control work in Jilin City and Changchun.

Large-scale nucleic acid testing and subsequent nucleic acid testing of all staff screened out potential infections, which led to a rapid increase in recent cases.

Because nucleic acid screening has screened out hidden cases, we have recently reported a relatively large number of cases.

  Where did the current round of epidemic in Jilin come from?

  Reporter: Everyone is very concerned about this round of Jilin epidemic. Where did it come from?

What is the traceability result?

Please introduce.

  Zhao Qinglong: There are mainly two chains of transmission of this epidemic in Jilin Province.

The first one was on February 28, when Hunchun City found out through high-speed rail passengers "on-the-spot inspection", and the diagnosis was reported on March 1.

Hunchun City is a port city in our Jilin Province. To implement the prevention and control policy of port-based cities, nucleic acid testing must be carried out for entry and exit.

The index case in Hunchun was tested positive for nucleic acid when he returned to Hunchun.

After the outbreak, Hunchun City has carried out multiple rounds of nucleic acid testing. At present, the epidemic in Hunchun has basically been effectively controlled, and the subsequent cases are all within the scope of control.

  The second chain was found in Jilin City on March 2, and the diagnosis was reported on March 3.

After the outbreak of the epidemic, all parts of our province have carried out investigations on risk personnel, and new infected people have been discovered one after another.

We gradually sequence the genes of the cases, because this kind of gene sequencing in the laboratory acts as a hammer. Then we combine the epidemiological investigation and conduct whole-genome sequencing on the samples of the cases submitted for inspection. The sequences are highly homologous.

We also uploaded the gene sequences of the specimens to the national database and compared them to the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

The strain of the virus found in our province was not found in China before, but in February 2022, a certain country uploaded the gene sequence of the related virus.

Therefore, this proves that the epidemic in our province is a new imported new coronavirus, which has caused local and large-scale transmission.

  Why are asymptomatic infections and mild cases mainly among the infected?

  Reporter: We noticed that it was mentioned in the epidemic report that more than 95% of the patients were asymptomatic and mild cases.

Does this situation have anything to do with vaccinations now?

  Zhao Qinglong: Yes, there are many reasons for this.

The first is because of the characteristics of this Omicron variant, which is highly infectious and spreads fast, but its case fatality rate is low, and the symptoms after infection with Omicron are relatively mild.

The second is that the vaccination rate of our province is relatively high, so after infection, many cases show asymptomatic or mild symptoms.

The immunization of large-scale populations has effectively established an immune barrier, which has played a positive role in our prevention and control.

  How will the epidemic develop?

How should we respond?

  Reporter: The epidemic situation in Jilin is very serious now, and the number of new reports has been relatively high recently. So I would like to ask you to predict what the future trend of this round of epidemic situation in Jilin Province will be?

What might happen next?

So how should we respond?

  Zhao Qinglong: March 14 was the highest number of infected people reported in our province recently. The province has now banned the movement of people from the province across provinces, cities and states. All primary and secondary schools and kindergartens have been suspended, and online teaching has been carried out at home.

Non-essential non-flows greatly reduce the risk of epidemic transmission, and the risk of a surge in the number of infected people in the short term due to clustered epidemics has been effectively controlled.

  Because the spread of the disease has a certain law, after the peak period, our province may continue to find new cases with the screening of personnel in recent days, and may enter a plateau period.

After the plateau period, there may be a trend in which the number of reported cases has dropped significantly.

  The next step is to do a good job of accurate flow investigation.

Try to isolate all such high-risk personnel as far as possible.

Changchun City and Jilin City should further improve the work plan and further strengthen the strength of personnel, because after the surge of cases, the pressure of epidemiology is also very great. Many places across the country have sent teams of this kind to support us, including medical treatment, epidemic prevention and control. Medical investigations, laboratory tests, etc.

  The second is to speed up the progress of nucleic acid testing.

Because we still have cases detected in the society, we must speed up the progress of nucleic acid testing, solidly promote the "knock on the door" and "sweep the floor", and find out the bottom line as soon as possible.

Improve the efficiency and capability of detection.

  Third, scientific and accurate school prevention and control.

The school is still a place where we focus on prevention and control. Now primary and secondary schools have been closed, but some colleges and universities have closed management, which is the focus of our prevention and control.

We must avoid the situation of new clustered epidemics in colleges and universities, implement the disinfection of the campus, and implement the morning, noon, and evening health monitoring system for teachers and students.

  Fourth, make every effort to ensure an adequate supply of materials.

Now that the epidemic has reached the most strenuous stage, it is necessary not only to provide material security for medical staff, public security police, volunteers, community workers and other groups working on the front line, but also to provide security for the people who manage at home.

Because there are more closed areas now, and the common people are staying at home, but we need to provide door-to-door services and ensure the supply of such materials for the common people.

  People's Daily Client Jilin Channel Zheng Zhiwen