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December 30, 2021

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Pressure mounts as infections rise

CHINA is facing increasing pressure to prevent inbound COVID-19 infections as the new Omicron variant has become widely prevalent in some countries, a Chinese health official said yesterday.

Mi Feng, a spokesperson for the National Health Commission, made the remarks at a press conference as the daily new COVID-19 infections globally had exceeded 800,000 several times over the recent week.

Considering that the upcoming New Year and Spring Festival holidays will see more flows of people, Mi stressed that strict anti-epidemic measures should occur resolutely and decisively.

The official also underlined all-out efforts to contain the spread of the virus while ensuring residents’ necessities and medical services in epidemic-hit regions.

To ensure that all localities, relevant authorities, and officials fulfill their responsibilities, the central government sent 15 inspection teams to carry out the scrutiny nationwide, said Mi.

Omicron still poses a “very high” risk and could overwhelm healthcare systems, the WHO warned yesterday. Case numbers have shot up 11 percent globally in the last week.

The Netherlands and Switzerland said Omicron had become the dominant strain in their countries, and while some studies suggested it causes milder COVID-19, the World Health Organization urged caution.

“The overall risk related to the new variant of concern Omicron remains very high,” the UN health agency said in its COVID-19 weekly epidemiological update.

“Consistent evidence shows that the Omicron variant has a growth advantage over the Delta variant with a doubling time of two to three days.”

The WHO said early data from Britain, South Africa, and Denmark, which currently has the world’s highest rate of infection per person, suggested there was a reduced risk of hospitalization for Omicron compared with Delta.

But it added that further data was needed to understand Omicron’s severity.




 

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