(Fighting against New Coronary Pneumonia) Chinese Disease Control Experts: There is no significant change in the pathogenicity of the BA.5 subclade of Omikron

　　China News Agency, Beijing, July 16. According to Chinese official media, Dong Xiaoping, chief expert of virology at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said in an interview a few days ago that the current data shows that the BA. Significantly increased, but the virulence did not change significantly compared with other Omicron subclades.

　　Dong Xiaoping said that the incubation period of BA.4 and BA.5 subclades has been significantly shortened. In the absence or little intervention of public health measures, the basic infection number (R0) reflecting the spread of the virus is very high, which brings a relatively high global impact. huge pressure.

However, in general, compared with other Omicron subclades, its pathogenicity has not been significantly increased or weakened, and it still poses a greater threat to the elderly and people with underlying diseases.

　　Dong Xiaoping said that the ninth edition of the prevention and control plan puts virus monitoring at a higher level, embodies a hierarchical nucleic acid screening plan, encrypts the frequency of nucleic acid testing for high-risk occupational groups, and increases antigen testing as a supplementary means of epidemic monitoring.

These measures in the ninth edition of the control plan are valid for both BA.4 and BA.5 subclades.

　　Talking about whether the existing new coronavirus vaccines are still effective for BA.4 and BA.5 subclades, Dong Xiaoping said that the immune escape ability of BA.4 and BA.5 subclades has been enhanced, but vaccination is still effective in preventing severe illness and death , the effect of preventing infection remains to be observed with larger data.

He called on people who meet the requirements for vaccination to complete the whole process of vaccination and booster immunization of the new crown virus as soon as possible.

　　Regarding whether people who have been infected with the new coronavirus will be re-infected with the Omicron variant, Dong Xiaoping said that there is still the possibility of being infected by the Omicron variant, but it will not be more susceptible or more serious than other groups of people. clinical results.

　　He also said that the BA.4 and BA.5 subclades should not be taken lightly, but there is no need to panic.

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