China recorded the highest number of daily infections with corona since February 2020, while state media reported a case of a new subtype of the Omicron mutant.
The new form of the virus evolves from the "BA.1.1" branch of the Omicron mutant, according to the "Global Times" newspaper, citing genetic sequence data from local health authorities, according to the Bloomberg news agency on Sunday.
The report stated that the subtype is not comparable to other coronaviruses that cause COVID-19 in China.
On Sunday, China recorded 13,287 new daily injuries, which is the highest number since February 2020, with the majority of infections concentrated in the northeastern province of Jilin and the financial center of Shanghai.
And the National Health Commission of China announced that the mainland recorded 1,506 new confirmed infections with the Corona virus on Saturday, down from 2,129 the previous day.
no deaths
But the committee said that the number of new asymptomatic infections rose to 11,781 on Saturday, compared to 7,869 the day before.
China does not classify these cases as confirmed cases.
The committee said that 1,455 of the new infections were transmitted locally, compared to 2,086 the day before.
Thus, the mainland has recorded 154,738 confirmed cases so far.
China did not record any new deaths, to remain at 4,638 deaths.
Great protection provided by hybrid immunity from COVID-19
Two new studies, the results of which were published on Friday, showed that those who have "hybrid immunity", that is, they received the full vaccine and were infected with Covid-19, enjoy the greatest protection from the Corona virus.
The two studies, more than two years after the outbreak of the pandemic, the infection of about half a billion people with the virus and billions of people receiving the vaccine, stressed the importance of those who were infected with the virus after recovering from the vaccine.
One of the two studies, published in the medical journal The Lancet Infectious Diseases, analyzed health data for more than 200,000 people in 2020 and 2021 in Brazil, which has the world's second-highest death toll.
And it was found that it provided those who were infected with Covid and received the Pfizer or AstraZeneca vaccine with 90% protection from hospitalization or death, compared to 81% for the Chinese CoronaVac vaccine and 58% for the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which One dose is taken.
Great extra protection for those infected with COVID-19
"These four vaccines have proven to provide significant additional protection for those previously infected with Covid-19," said study author Julio Costa from the Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul.
"Hybrid immunity from exposure to natural infection and vaccination is likely to become the global standard, and may provide long-term protection against emerging mutants," said Pramod Kumar of the Translational Health Science and Technology Institute in India.
A study based on Sweden's national records until October 2021 concluded that those who have recovered from Covid maintain a high level of protection from a new infection, which may reach about 20 months.
very good protection
And it showed that those who received two doses of the vaccine with hybrid immunity decreased their risk of infection again by 66% compared to those who had only natural immunity.
Paul Hunter, professor of medicine at the University of East Anglia, who was not involved in the study, told AFP that 20 months of "very good protection is much better than what we expected from the two-dose vaccine programme."
But he cautioned that the two studies were completed before the mutant Omicron dominated the world, noting that "they led to a significant decrease in the protection provided by a previous infection."