China’s explosive Covid wave may spark ‘deadly’ variant that could spread across the globe

Wang Guangfa, a respiratory expert from Peking University First Hospital, told China’s state-owned outlet Global Times in China the next two weeks could be particularly tough, urging immediate action to prepare fever clinics, emergency and severe treatment resources. 

However, he claimed COVID-19 cases will then fall off and life should slowly return to normal around the end of February and the beginning of March. But not all experts are as optimistic. 

Daniel Lucey, a fellow at the Infectious Diseases Society of America and professor at Dartmouth University’s Geisel School of Medicine, told Bloomberg: “It could be more contagious, more deadly, or evade drugs, vaccines and detection from existing diagnostics.”

She likened a potential new strain to what was seen with the delta version of the virus, which devastated India in late 2020 and infected millions of people over a short space of time, with the lethal strain spreading rapidly across the world. 

Maria Van Kerkhove, the World Health Organization’s Covid-19 technical lead, said: “This will bite us. We need to have some eyes around the world on this.”

Article source: https://www.express.co.uk/news/science/1713027/china-covid-new-variant-omicron-deaths