Topline
China is facing its worst outbreak of Covid-19 cases since the early days of the pandemic in Wuhan, with the country on Tuesday reporting more than 3,500 new local cases as experts attribute the surge to the fast spreading BA.2 sublineage of the omicron variant.
Key Facts
China’s National Health Commission reported 3,507 new local Covid-19 cases on Tuesday, up from 1,337 on Monday.
The current outbreak appears to be largely centered around the northeastern city of Jilin, which reported 2,601 cases on Monday.
However, cases have also been reported in other parts of China including major urban centers like Shanghai and the capital Beijing.
In the first two weeks of March, China reported more than 10,000 new Covid-19 cases, making this the worst outbreak the country has faced since Wuhan in 2020.
News Peg
The current outbreak has challenged China’s ‘dynamic zero-Covid’ strategy that aims to prevent large-scale spread of the virus by squashing emerging clusters of cases through swift lockdowns and mass testing. The ongoing surge in cases has been attributed to the so-called “stealth omicron” variant also known as the BA.2 sub-variant. This sub-variant has been reported to spread faster than earlier omicron subvariants, which were significantly faster spreading that other variants like delta. BA.2 has been called the “stealth variant” because it is missing several mutations present on other omicron subvariants, making it harder to distinguish from older variants using PCR tests.
Big Number
120,504. That’s the total number of Covid-19 cases China has reported since the start of the pandemic, according to the National Health Commission. As of Tuesday, there are 11,984 confirmed active cases in the country.
Surprising Fact
China has not reported a single new Covid-19 death since January 26, 2021, despite facing multiple delta variant outbreaks last year. The country’s total death toll from Covid-19 currently stands at 4,636—the lowest per-capita death rate for any country other than Burundi. However some questions remain about the veracity of this data.
Further Reading
Chinese virus cases climb, raise threat of trade disruption (Associated Press)
China battles multiple outbreaks, driven by stealth omicron (Associated Press)
