China to track Covid-19 mutations through national hospital network
- Participating hospitals will take samples from patients for genome sequencing and analysis as part of move to living with the virus
- China CDC says130 Omicron sub-lineages have been found in the past three months but none cause severe illness or an increase in death rates
Concerns have also been raised about whether it is possible to track any changes as the country battles a surge in cases at the same time as testing requirements have been scaled back.
Mass PCR testing was cancelled in early December and negative test results are no longer required to return to work or enter public places, including hospitals. There is no encouragement for people to get tested.
To keep track of the emergence of new variants, the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (China CDC) has established a data gathering network made up of one hospital in each city, and three cities in each province.
Xu Wenbo, director of the China CDC’s National Institute for Viral Disease Control and Prevention, said each hospital is expected to collect samples from 15 patients in the outpatients and emergency room, 10 from patients with severe illnesses, and all fatalities.
Genomic data from the samples will be uploaded to the national database within a week for analysis and sequencing, laying out the distribution of any sub-lineages that may develop across the country, Xu told a press briefing on Tuesday.
