China CDC to publish monthly updates on COVID mutations

Xinhua

The trend of the COVID-19 outbreak in China will be published monthly on the website of China's CDC, focusing on the virus mutation and its development in key groups after the country downgraded the disease's management from Class A to Class B.

The COVID-19 infections are likely to jump, and medical resources will be stretched at the start of the adjustment after China relaxed its prevention measures, Lei Zhenglong, head of the National Bureau of Disease Control and Prevention's prevention department, told Xinhua news agency on Tuesday.

People will be concerned about possible health risks and alarmed by the pandemic's rapid spread, according to Lei.

To address these issues, China will strengthen education, encourage people to practice good personal hygiene, optimize medical resources by constructing a tiered medical system, and ensure medication supply, according to Lei.

China will continue to monitor its pathogenicity before deciding whether to downgrade the novel coronavirus to Class C, the lowest level of prevention measures, according to Li Qun, director of the China CDC's emergency response center.

Three factors will be considered when making the decision: whether the virus strains are more stable, and whether their pathogenicity is reduced further; second, a more complete and systematic understanding of diseases, as well as more sophisticated methods of prevention and treatment; finally, according to Li, when the general public is fully aware of the disease risks and is better equipped to prevent the disease.

China categorizes 40 infectious diseases into three management levels: Class A, B and C.