Interview with Deputy Director of China Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: What is the impact of the mutant new coronavirus in the UK on China's defense control?

　　China News Service, Beijing, December 25th (Li Jingze and Huang Yuqin) Within 10 days, the United Kingdom announced the discovery of a mutant new coronavirus twice, causing concern in Europe and the world.

Will the mutant virus spread globally?

What is its impact on China's epidemic prevention and control?

Feng Zijian, deputy director of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, accepted an exclusive interview with China News Agency on the 25th to answer this question.

　　Following the confirmation of a mutated new coronavirus on December 14, the British government announced on the 23rd that another more infectious mutated new coronavirus has been discovered.

It is reported that the two newly detected cases of mutated new coronaviruses have been in contact with confirmed cases from South Africa.

　　The British "Guardian" stated that South Africa reported this new mutant virus for the first time on the 18th. Although it is different from the mutant new coronavirus strain first discovered in the UK, they all have a mutation called “N501Y”. May cause the virus to spread more easily.

　　According to estimates by the British Emergency Scientific Advisory Group on the 23rd, the R value of the number of new coronavirus transmissions is currently between 1.1 and 1.3, an increase from 1.1 to 1.2 last week.

Feng Zijian said that in the past eight or nine weeks, the weekly incidence rate in the United Kingdom, especially the central and southern regions, has increased by 3-4 times, and the proportion of new mutant strains has also increased significantly, suggesting that this may be related to the increased transmission capacity of the mutant new coronavirus .

　　Official British statistics show that the country’s new coronary pneumonia cases have increased by 57% in the past week.

On the 22nd, 39237 cases set the highest number of newly confirmed cases in a single day since the outbreak in the UK.

　　Regarding whether the surge in the number of confirmed diagnoses is related to the mutant virus, Feng Zijian said that from the perspective of laboratory research, the existing data in the UK proves that the ability of the mutant virus to bind to human receptors has indeed been significantly enhanced, which will facilitate the spread of the virus among the population.

On the other hand, the spread of the virus is also related to people's behavior. Wearing a mask, keeping social distance, paying attention to personal hygiene, etc. will all have an impact.

　　"To what extent the intensification of the epidemic can be attributed to the mutation of the virus, and to what extent it is attributed to changes in human behavior, there is no way to distinguish it temporarily," Feng Zijian said.

　　Within a week after the United Kingdom announced the discovery of the mutant new coronavirus on the 14th, at least Denmark, the Netherlands, Australia and other countries have found confirmed cases related to the latest mutant virus.

The newly discovered mutant virus in the UK comes from South Africa, which makes people worry about whether the mutant virus will spread globally.

　　"There is such a risk." Feng Zijian believes that even so, the public need not worry too much.

The virus mutation is not unexpected.

The World Health Organization also called earlier not to panic about the highly contagious new variants of the new coronavirus in the UK, saying that the new coronavirus has been evolving or mutating.

　　Feng Zijian believes that if the transmission rate of the mutant virus is indeed increased, it will make the prevention and control of the epidemic more difficult. The original more effective epidemic prevention measures need to be adjusted or further strengthened.

　　As far as China’s current epidemic prevention and control is concerned, Feng Zijian said that from the virus sequences currently obtained in China, whether it is imported personnel, goods or cold chain products, no mutated viruses have been found in viruses obtained from various sources. enter.

　　However, the situation is still grim. On the one hand, the China Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is closely following the spread of the mutant virus in the UK, Europe, and even the world.

　　Virus mutation has also caused people to worry about the effectiveness of nucleic acid detection reagents. Feng Zijian explained that the two probes selected for nucleic acid detection in China do not contain mutation regions, so they can still effectively detect viruses.

"The positions of the two probes are relatively conservative, and there is currently no decrease in detection sensitivity."

　　In addition, China has also accumulated a series of effective measures in the prevention of overseas frozen food, transportation and certain non-cold chain goods, including quarantine and inspection after entry, disinfection of products, and protection against contact with imported goods and imported goods. The personnel of the vehicles shall strengthen protection and health monitoring.

　　Recently, a number of new crown vaccines have been approved successively and have begun to be vaccinated on a large scale in many countries. Under the haze of the epidemic, whether this "sweeping the clouds and seeing the sun" will again be saddened by the mutated virus, has become another focus of attention.

　　In this regard, Feng Zijian pointed out that there has been no case where a mutated virus has caused the vaccine to lose its protection.

He said that the world will pay attention to the mutation of the virus. As the country where the latest mutated virus was discovered, the United Kingdom will use the antibodies produced by the now developed vaccine and the newly mutated live virus to conduct cross-over comprehensive tests within one or two weeks. Observe changes in vaccine efficacy.

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