Evening News| British experts: The subtype of poison evolved by Aumechjong may prolong the duration of the pandemic

1. 25 new locally confirmed cases were added in 31 provinces

From 0 to 24:00 on January 26, 31 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government) and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps reported 63 new confirmed cases. Among them, there were 38 imported cases (20 cases in Shanghai, 5 cases in Yunnan, 4 cases in Zhejiang, 3 cases in Guangdong, 2 cases in Henan, 1 case in Beijing, 1 case in Jilin, 1 case in Guangxi, and 1 case in Sichuan), including 6 cases of conversion from asymptomatic infected persons to confirmed cases (4 cases in Zhejiang, 1 case in Guangdong, and 1 case in Yunnan); 25 cases of local cases (6 cases in Zhejiang, all in Hangzhou; 5 cases in Beijing, all in Fengtai District; 5 cases in Heilongjiang, all in Mudanjiang City; 4 cases in Hebei, all in Langfang City; 1 case in Tianjin, in Hebei District; 1 case in Shanghai, in Fengxian District 1 case in Henan, in Anyang City; 1 case in Xinjiang, in Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture; 1 case in the Corps, in the 4th Division of the Construction Corps), including 2 cases converted from asymptomatic infected persons to confirmed cases (1 case in Beijing, 1 case in Heilongjiang). There were no new deaths. There were no new suspected cases.

2. British experts: The subtype of poison evolved by Omikeron may prolong the duration of the pandemic

According to Sky News, the BA.2 subtype strain, an evolutionary offshoot of Aumi kerong, is currently considered a variant under investigation (VUI) by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), which previously found that BA.2 has similar properties to the original Omikeron strain.

It's not yet known what the impact of this subtype strain will be, but experts have shared their concerns about its potential to prolong the current wave of outbreaks.

Dr Meera Chand, head of COVID-19 at UKHSA, said. "Virus evolution and mutation is its essence, so it is foreseeable that as the pandemic progresses, we will continue to see the emergence of new mutated strains." Continuous genomic monitoring allows us to discover them and assess whether they are important. So far, there is insufficient evidence to determine whether BA.2 causes more serious disease than the original strain of Omikejong (BA.1), but the data are limited and the UKHSA will continue to investigate. "

Francois Balloux, a professor of computational biology at University College London, added that BA.2 differs from the original BA.1 strain by about 20 mutations.

"Interestingly, these two Opmi-Kjung subtypes are sister branches that evolved from other mutated strains a few months ago, not from each other," he said. At this stage, BA.1 and BA.2 can be considered two epidemiologically equivalent Opmi-Kjung subtypes. "

Professor Oliver Johnson, director of the Institute of Statistical Sciences at the University of Bristol, said the new mutant strain might not need to be worried, but it could also mean the outbreak lasted longer than previously thought.

3. 3. 30 countries and regions have found the Omni Kejung subtype variant strain

WHO said on the 25th that the risk level of the epidemic related to Omi kerong is still very high. From samples collected over the past 30 days and sequenced genomes and uploaded to the Global Influenza Shared Database (GISAID), Omikron accounted for 89.1%. At the same time, the subtype variant of the Omiljun strain, BA.2, has attracted attention, and at least 40 countries and regions around the world have reported cases of infection with this strain, including the United Kingdom and the United States, but the WHO also pointed out that BA.2 has not been listed as a "noteworthy" strain, which means that there is no evidence that the strain will aggravate the severity of the disease and weaken the effectiveness of the vaccine.

4. The Omiljung mutant strain is more stable and survives longer in the environment

A new study from Kyoto Prefectural Medical University in Japan has found that the mutated strains of the new coronavirus have survived much longer on plastic and skin surfaces than the original strains in the early days of the pandemic.

Testing skin samples from human corpses infected with Omilon showed that the survival time of the original strain was 8.6 hours, the alpha strain was 19.6 hours, the beta strain was 19.1 hours, the gamma strain was 11 hours, and the Delta strain was 16.8 hours; and the Omilon strain could be as long as 21.1 hours.

The scientists found that on both plastic and skin surfaces, the Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, and Omikeron variants all showed survival times longer than the original strains and remained infectious on the surface of the skin for more than 16 hours.