The report quoted a Zhejiang official with the provincial centre for disease control and prevention as saying that AY.4 is highly transmissible and has a significantly higher viral load than the original novel coronavirus.
A surge in Coronavirus cases that too shortly before the Winter Olympics, which is set to take place in Beijing in February 2022, has become the cause of anxiety among officials.
The state-run Xinhua news agency reported on Sunday that Zhejiang province has recorded 138 locally-transmitted confirmed COVID-19 cases and one asymptomatic carrier since December 5-12.
According to Chinese state television, CGTN-TV, this is the first time China has reported a new strain of the Delta Coronavirus.
On Sunday, Hangzhou, the provincial headquarters reported that of the 138 cases in Zhejiang, 44 cases were reported in Ningbo, 77 cases in Shaoxing, and 17 cases in Hangzhou, the provincial capital.
According to the report, it was determined from whole-genome sequencing and analysis that the cases in the three cities were caused by the Delta strain 'sub-lineage AY.4'.
The report quoted a Zhejiang official with the provincial centre for disease control and prevention as saying that AY.4 is highly transmissible and has a significantly higher viral load than the original novel coronavirus.
Comment: The more important detail is just how severe the disease caused by AY.4 is, because, as with the omicron mutation, and virus mutations more generally, it's likely to cause less severe disease but be more transmissible.
In order to prevent the virus from spreading further, local authorities have restricted public gatherings and out-of-province travel from the province that has a population of 64.6 million.
As per National Health Commission data, 101 confirmed cases of COVID-19 were recorded on China's mainland on Sunday, with 80 linked to local transmissions and 21 linked to overseas transmissions.
Further, 17 new asymptomatic cases were recorded, and 444 asymptomatic patients remain under medical observation.
On Monday, 80 cases were reported across the country, including 74 in Zhejiang, five in Inner Mongolia, and one in Shaanxi.
China, which has effectively curbed international travel, has been reporting sporadic cases of Coronavirus, raising doubts about its zero-case policy.
Comment: A number of countries, including Australia and New Zealand, were forced to drop their nonsensical 'zero-covid' attempts, and the evidence suggests that not only does it delay the inevitable, it actually makes the situation many times worse: China risks 'colossal Covid-19 outbreak' by opening up, inadequate study finds
As of Sunday, 99,780 confirmed cases of COVID-19 had been recorded in China since the virus broke out in the central city of Wuhan in 2019.
Of this number, 1,381 patients remain in treatment, 27 of them in severe condition. In all, 93,763 patients have been discharged from hospitals on the mainland and 4,636 have died from the virus.
Comment: It seems that China's statistics of deaths caused primarily by Covid are closer to accurate when compared with the rest of the planet that counts any death with Covid, regardless of age and comorbidities, as a death from Covid. Note that China has also not been including asymptomatic cases in its daily tally of Covid cases, either:
- Major port in China shuts terminal threatening another surge in shipping prices after 1 Covid case detected
- 'Zero Covid' is utopian, authoritarian nonsense - is that why so many lefties love it?
Also check out SOTT radio's: NewsReal: Omicron! Nu Variant! More Lockdowns! More Jabs!