China can witness a new wave of the coronavirus or COVID-19 cases as winter approaches, as per the nation's experts. Wu Zunyou, who is the chief epidemiologist at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), stated that the country had already witnessed four waves of infections and a fifth is possible.
The first outbreak took place in Wuhan that was brought under control in March, as per Wu. The second was a regional outbreak due to imported cases in northeastern China in April and May. The third wave took place at a wholesale food market in Beijing in June whereas the fourth wave happened in July in Dalian and Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang.
COVID-19 New Wave in China
"Except for the initial outbreak in Wuhan, the outbreaks were sporadic, regional cases, and they were effectively controlled," he mentioned. Beijing is under pressure to control bot the regional outbreaks and also the imported cases.
He said that the isolation of asymptomatic cases and contract tracing helped in controlling the spread and will be effective in the future along with the nucleic acid tests. Zhong Nanshan, a respiratory disease expert and also the director of the State Key Laboratory of Respiratory Disease, stated that the pandemic was probably going to continue in winter and spring. The nation will carry out all the required procedures to control another outbreak if required.
There are concerns regarding a spike in the number of cases around the world. WHO has also confirmed that half of the EU nations have reported a doubling of cases in the last two weeks. "Although these numbers reflect more comprehensive testing, it also shows alarming rates of transmission across the region," Hans Kluge, the regional director for Europe of WHO said as reported by the South China Morning Post.
China's CDC said that few of the cities will be offering flu shots a month before than normal to help reduce the risk of double infections. "The vaccines can reduce the occurrence of pneumonia and influenza so that it can reduce the demand and difficulty of diagnosis of Covid-19," Wu said.
