On January 13, 2023, at the press conference of the joint prevention and control mechanism of the State Council, Chen Cao, a researcher at the Institute of Virology of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, mentioned in response to a reporter's question that from December 1 to January 12 last year, the mainland monitored one case of the indigenous Omicron variant XBB, and 33 imported cases of the XBB variant and its subtypes, from 20 countries and regions.
From the perspective of foreign conditions, XBB1.5 is currently the most important epidemic strain in the United States and other countries, due to its extremely high "immune escape" ability, XBB.1.5 has quickly replaced BQ.1.1 and BQ.1, becoming the number one epidemic strain in the United States. , So will XBB become widely popular in the mainland?
According to the data monitoring of the new coronavirus variant, from December 1, 2022 to January 12, 2023, only one case of XBB infection was detected in mainland China.
However, 33 imported cases of XBB and its subclades have been detected among the imported cases, and the mainland is currently facing the risk of continuous importation of XBB and its subbranches, and the risk of locally associated cases is greater.
However, it has not yet developed a widespread epidemic.
This does not mean that the country is necessarily safe, because with the liberalization of the domestic epidemic policy, the frequency of foreign personnel visiting the country has greatly increased, which increases the probability of the spread of XBB in China, and the probability of related related cases will also increase.
For now, the country has just experienced large-scale new crown infection, many people have produced new crown antibodies, although there is no national immunity barrier, but the state from the source of entry began to control, from the CDC released the news, the country temporarily does not have the basis for XBB large-scale epidemic.
According to the relevant person in charge of the General Administration of Customs, the current epidemic prevention and control policy implemented by the domestic customs is to take a nucleic acid test 48 hours before boarding, and a negative nucleic acid can come to China.
So, does this mean that everyone can no longer worry about the spread of the XBB virus?
This is not the case, from the previous domestic epidemic prevention point of view, especially since the introduction of the "new ten", the proportion of domestic people infected with the new crown has continued to rise, and the infection rate in many provinces has reached more than 80%, or even close to 90%, which indicates that even other types of strains, the transmission speed is very fast, not to mention the "poison king" XBB?
Especially the Spring Festival is approaching, coupled with the opening of the epidemic, the number of people entering and leaving the country has increased significantly, which greatly tests the work ability of domestic entry and exit agencies, after all, foreign XBB spread so rapidly, if you do not put the national epidemic prevention gate, it is difficult to imagine that if there is another wave of XBB with a very strong immune escape, the domestic epidemic will develop into what it will look like.
This wave of many elderly people can no longer stand it, and another wave of XBB, young people can not stand it.
Cao Yunlong, a Chinese scientist who previously tracked the evolution of the new crown virus and accurately predicted the emergence of new mutations and new strains, was selected as one of the "Top Ten People" of Scientific Impact in 2022 published by Nature magazine. He once said that according to the previous development of the epidemic abroad, most countries have experienced four waves of major infection peaks in 2022, mostly induced by different mutant strains, with an average of once every three months.
Previously, Zhang Wenhong, director of the National Medical Center for Infectious Diseases, mentioned in a previous keynote speech that after experiencing the first wave of large-scale epidemic infections, China will gradually enter the stage of local epidemic and synchronize with the world.
And Zhang Wenhong reminded:
1. The peak of the second wave of infections should be in May and June 2023.
Previously, he has always stressed that what is urgently needed after the first wave of domestic epidemic infection should be to increase the vaccination rate of the population over 60 years old, and at the same time, drug reserves should be completed according to the base of high-risk factors surveyed by various provinces and cities.
Medicinal use at the grassroots level can prevent a run on secondary and tertiary medical resources when the peak of the second wave of infection arrives.
2. It is necessary to strengthen the construction of grassroots community health institutions
Within 72 hours of gold, make full use of existing new crown multiple drugs, especially antiviral small molecule drugs, and can also combine oxygen therapy, traditional Chinese medicine therapy and low-dose hormone therapy.
"If antiviral drugs can be covered with 100% of patients with high-risk factors, it will effectively reduce the rate of severe disease in people with high-risk factors."
3. Vaccination of key populations
He mentioned that during the Omicron epidemic in Singapore, excess deaths were greatly reduced, and an important reason was that during the Delta epidemic, the vast majority of the elderly completed 3 doses of vaccination.
In this regard, he introduced a study he led his research group to verify whether the vaccine still works after a long time.
Through the research of the project, after 3-6 months of vaccination, the level of new crown antibodies in the body will decrease, even when it reaches a relatively low level of 6 months, B lymphocytes, especially memory B cells, will quickly replicate when they encounter the invasion of the new crown Omicron virus.
This shows that immune cells have a very strong memory, and even without antibodies, the virus will still trigger an immune response after entering the body.
4. After herd immunity, new virus mutations may appear, which need to appear after herd immunity
Zhang Wenhong said that the mutation rate of the new crown virus is very fast, and there are many virus subsets on patients in the same time node, which means that after vaccination and herd immunity, these mutation points, or subspecies that may escape, are constantly screened out.
After a positive infection, a significant increase in severe cases and deaths in China, and a high load of fever clinics in various places, it is necessary to postpone or even stop the next peak of infection. In addition, effectively grasp the relevant virus sequence data of XBB in advance, carry out effective screening, and truthfully announce the possible symptoms of XBB, so that everyone can do a good job in epidemic prevention and control.
At present, in addition to the construction of the medical system and related drug protection, how to effectively block XBB from the country, this is the most critical.
It is hoped that the relevant departments can consider this point in more depth, directly block foreign imports, and reduce the associated infections of imported cases, only in this way can we ensure the basic health of the domestic population, especially the elderly.
After all, such an infection, experienced once, physically damaged once, how many chances do the elderly have to survive this menacing XBB?
As for many people who care about whether there will be a re-lockdown, the probability will not, after all, for three years, the national economy is very difficult, and the problem of food and survival to be solved at the moment is now the top priority.
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