China finds new Covid-19 subtype as daily cases exceed 13,000
BEIJING - China on Sunday (April 3) reported 13,146 Covid-19 cases, the highest since the peak of the first wave of the pandemic more than two years ago, with a new subtype of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus identified.
There were 1,455 patients with symptoms 11,691 asymptomatic cases and no new deaths in the country, The Straits Times said, quoting China's National Health Commission, in a report credited to AFP and Bloomberg.
State media reported a case infected with the new subtype of the virus.
It was found in a patient with mild Covid-19 in a city less than 70km from Shanghai, and had evolved from the BA.1.1 branch of the Omicron variant, the Global Times reported, citing sequencing data from local health authorities.
The report said the subtype doesn’t match others causing Covid-19 in China nor those submitted to GISAID, where scientists around the world share the coronavirus sequencing as a way to monitor mutations.
In Shanghai, the epicentre of the country's most severe Covid-19 outbreak, nearly all of its 25 million residents were under stay-at-home orders on Saturday as officials rushed to curb the spread of the disease.
On Sunday, the city had more than 8,200 local cases – nearly 70 per cent of the nationwide total.
Shanghai's restrictions threaten to snarl supply chains, with shipping giant Maersk saying on Friday that some depots in the city remained closed and trucking services would likely be hit further due to the lockdown.
Anger is rising among Shanghai residents over lockdowns that were initially announced as just for four days to mass-test the city, but now appear likely to drag into late next week or longer.
Vice-Premier Sun Chunlan arrived in Shanghai to oversee prevention efforts, as she ordered officials to curtail the outbreak "as soon as possible", according to Xinhua.
Ms Sun, who previously went to Jilin to oversee lockdown measures in the northeast province, ordered Shanghai officials to "resolutely" conduct measures to stop the outbreak.
China is among the last remaining places following a zero-Covid-19 approach to the pandemic.
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