China’s first case of new coronavirus strain is no cause for alarm, says infectious disease expert

Shanghai-based specialist Zhang Wenhong says the patient showed very mild symptoms and has already left the isolation ward

The variant was detected in a student who last month returned to the Chinese city from Britain, where the new strain first emerged

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A little girl is tested for Covid-19 at a primary school in Shenyang. Photo: AFP

Published: 7:51pm, 2 Jan 2021Updated: 10:18pm, 2 Jan 2021

One of the most trusted medical figures in China has urged the public not to panic after the country reported its first case of the new highly contagious coronavirus strain that was first discovered in Britain.

Shanghai-based infectious disease expert Zhang Wenhong said on Friday that the patient, a 23-year-old student returning from Britain, had already left the isolation ward in which she had been placed after returning a negative test.

“There is nothing special about the case,” Zhang, director of Huashan Hospital’s department of infectious disease and head of the Shanghai panel overseeing the treatment of Covid-19, wrote in a post on the social media platform Weibo. “The patient’s symptoms were so mild that it didn’t even need my attention.

“Therefore, there will not be any clinical specificity for the mutant virus. Though the transmission rate may slightly increase, the current isolation and quarantine measures are very effective.”

The student, who returned to Shanghai on December 14, tested positive for the new variant and was transferred to hospital for isolation and treatment on the same day, according to a briefing published by the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday. She had tested negative two days before her flight.

A genetic sequencing result confirmed on December 24 that the patient’s strain was the same as the new variant, known as B117, which was first detected in southeast England and has now spread to more than 30 countries.

China’s first case of new coronavirus strain is no cause for alarm, says infectious disease expert

Shanghai-based specialist Zhang Wenhong says the patient showed very mild symptoms and has already left the isolation ward The variant was detected in a student who last month returned to the Chinese city from Britain, where the new strain first emerged

Shanghai-based specialist Zhang Wenhong says the patient showed very mild symptoms and has already left the isolation ward

The variant was detected in a student who last month returned to the Chinese city from Britain, where the new strain first emerged