BREAKING! China Imposes Urgent Stringent Lockdown In City Of Baise Near Vietnam Border Due To Surge By SARS-CoV-2 Delta AY.122 Subvariant!
Source: Delta AY.122 Sub-variant Feb 07, 2022 2 years, 9 months, 2 weeks, 3 days, 14 hours, 33 minutes ago
Chinese authorities over the last 24 hours imposed an urgent and stringent lockdown in the city of Baise in the southern Guangxi region that is home to more than 3.6 million people due to a new surge that is being caused by the SARS-CoV-2 Delta subvariant AY.122 and also sub-lineages that the AY.122 is also spawning.
The AY.122 subvariant has been causing a massive surge in Vietnam and also in Russia and is more severe than the Omicron. The Omicron has not been able to displace the Delta AY.122 subvariant that seems to in fact working in the opposite direction and is now the predominant variant in both countries and gradually spreading to other countries.
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.12.02.21267168v1
The
AY.122 subvariant has all the mutations found in the original Delta variant but also characterized by the nsp2:K81N+ORF7a:P45L combination of mutations. ORF7a has been shown to suppress BST2 protein that restricts the egress of viral particles from the cell. It was also shown to bind to CD14+ monocytes, which reduces their antigen representation capacity and triggers the production of proinflammatory cytokines. Nonsynonymous mutations in ORF7a contribute to SARS-CoV-2 clade success. C-terminal truncations of ORF7a are frequent and were shown to affect viral replication.
Infections with the AY.122 variant has shown to be more severe and often needs hospitalization and also the mortality risk is increased especially for the elderly and those with existing comorbidities.
The AY.122 is also causing lots of breakthrough infections among the fully vaccinated and seems to be still evolving and spawning newer sub-lineages.
It due to the seriousness of the variants involved coupled with more a few hundred cases that could be now circulating in the city of Baise that the Chinese authorities took an urgent decision to lock down the city in the last few hours.
To date more than 70 cases have been confirmed over the last 3 days but hundreds more of symptomatic individuals are awaiting test results according to local health authorities.
It was reported that China is the only major world economy that still sticking to a staunch zero-COVID policy.
The country is also on high alert for any outbreaks as it hosts the Beijing Winter Olympics.
Health officials in the city of Baise in the southern Guangxi region announced late Sunday that no one would be allowed to leave the city, while residents of some districts would be confined to their homes.
Vice-mayor for Baise, Gu Junyan told local media, "Citywide traffic controls will be implemented. In principle, vehicles and people cannot enter or leave the city and personnel control strictly enforced to ensure no unnecessary movement of people."
He added that residents of some neighborhoods in smaller rural cities and counties under Baise's jurisdiction have been placed under strict home confinement, while others cannot leave their district.
The city of Baise, located about 100 kilometers (62 miles) from the Vietnamese border, on Friday discovered its first local case ie a traveler who had returned home for the week-long Lunar Ne
w Year holiday from Vietnam, according to local Chinese officials.
China has built a heavily enforced wire mesh fence along its southern border to keep out illegal migrants from Vietnam and Myanmar ever since the pandemic started as well as potential COVID-19 infections.
Compulsory mass testing is already under way for residents in Baize and also in surround areas according to local authorities.
China has used strict local lockdowns, mass testing and contact-tracing apps to try and eliminate outbreaks as soon as cases are detected, sparing the country the mass deaths witnessed around the rest of the world.
It was reported that millions were confined to their homes in multiple Chinese cities in the run-up to the Olympics after cases involving both the Delta and Omicron coronavirus variants flared. The outbreaks were mostly stamped out.
It was also reported that in December, 13 million residents of the northern megacity of Xi'an were placed under strict home confinement for over a month after an outbreak of more than 2,000 cases.
Many locals then had complained of grocery shortages and overly harsh enforcement of lockdown measures by local officials, which saw patients blocked from receiving critical medical treatment, leading to deaths in some cases.
Chinese health authorities reported 79 new cases nationwide Monday, of which 37 were in Guangxi.
It was also reported that Hong Kong's zero-COVID policy is on the ropes after a record number of new infections was announced over the weekend, sending officials scrambling to ramp up testing capacity and warning that a tightening of virus-control measures could be needed.
China's borders with the rest of the world, including Hong Kong, are largely sealed.
The surge in cases in Hong Kong were believed to have originated from infected hamsters from the Netherlands.
https://www.thailandmedical.news/news/breaking-illegal-dutch-hamsters-reported-spreading-new-delta-subvariant-in-hong-kong-authorities-have-ordered-all-hamsters-to-be-surrendered-for-eutha
Meanwhile it should be noted that while the world is preoccupied with the Omicron variant and its latest sub-variants like the BA.2 and also the newer Omicron subvariant that has been identified in Brazil but not yet named,
https://www.thailandmedical.news/news/breaking-new-omicron-sub-lineage-not-yet-named-with-additional-28-mutations-including-f643l-and-a701v-wreaking-havoc-in-brazil , newer more concerning Delta subvariants are emerging all around the world, some in small clusters while other are gaining dominance in circulation in certain regions and countries but strangely no experts or media are covering on these.
For more on the
Delta AY.122 subvariant, keep on logging to Thailand Nedical News.
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