China News Service, April 15. According to Hong Kong Wenhui.com, the new coronavirus Omicron variant BA.5 was detected in Hong Kong for the first time.

The Hong Kong Department of Health stated that a 24-year-old man who arrived in Hong Kong from South Africa was tested negative at the airport. Two days later, he was tested positive for nucleic acid at a quarantine hotel. Whole gene analysis revealed that he had the BA.5 mutated virus. high.

  Zhang Zhujun, director of the Infectious Diseases Division of the Centre for Health Protection of the Hong Kong Department of Health, said at a press conference on the epidemic on the 14th that the 24-year-old male patient had earlier arrived in Hong Kong by flight ET6608 from South Africa via Ethiopia and then via Thailand on the 6th of this month. The test at Hong Kong time was negative. Two days later, the nucleic acid test at the hotel was positive. The rapid test the next day was also positive. At the same time, he developed low-grade fever, cough and other symptoms, so he was transferred from the quarantine hotel to the isolation hotel.

  The patient's condition was mild and did not require medication and treatment, and has now recovered.

Whole gene analysis of the patient's virus sample detected BA.5 mutant virus, the Ct value at that time was lower than 30, and the virus amount was high.

Zhang Zhujun said that the patient's flight passengers and those who had contact with the patient were not found to be infected.

  Zhang Zhujun said that the BA.5 virus is one of the variant virus strains that the WHO must observe and has been found in other countries and regions, including Botswana, Denmark, Germany and the United Kingdom.

Its impact on public health is still under investigation and research. There is no more information from the health departments in various places, and Hong Kong will continue to pay attention.

  Liang Zichao, a Hong Kong respiratory specialist, said in an interview on the 14th that there is currently little information about the Omicron BA.5 variant virus, and there are only dozens of cases in the world. More serious than BA.2.

However, since it is a new virus, he suggested that Hong Kong should adopt stricter quarantine measures for such cases of infection, such as extending the quarantine period from 7 days to 14 days for arrivals from certain regions, and requiring arrivals twice The quarantine order can only be lifted if the nucleic acid test is negative.