COVID-19 infection at low level, few with a third exposure

The aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic is remaining stable, and the number of COVID-19 patients with flu-like symptoms has kept dropping since May, according to the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

The Chinese mainland reported 455 serious cases of COVID-19 in July, with 65 deaths. All patients had underlying diseases. There was no death because of respiratory failure due to COVID-19, Chinese CDC said.

The patients at fever clinics dropped from 162,000 on July 1 to 124,000 on July 31. Flu-like cases in outpatient and emergency departments also dropped from 4.1 percent in the first week of July to 3.6 percent in the last week.

Flu-like COVID-positive cases have continued to drop since late May, from 42.5 percent to 12 percent in mid-July; the rate slightly rose to 13.4 percent in the last week of July.

According to genetic sequencing, all domestic cases were Omicron strains with XBB the leading substrain.

While some people complained about a third infection of COVID-19 recently, hospitals in Shanghai said there are very few patients with frequent infection within a short period of time.

Huashan Hospital said its hospitalized patients with COVID infection are mainly people who are infected for the first time, elderly people, those with serious underlying diseases and who haven't received vaccination.

There are very few people with a third-time infection and almost no one with a fourth infection in the outpatient department.

Dr Wang Xinyu from Huashan Hospital's infectious disease department said the pandemic is at a stable and low level.

Doctors have met patients who have another infection three months after the previous one. But it is in a very small quantity and most have mild symptoms.