Up to 2,000 people entering the UK from China every day are being tested for Covid as the government ramps up efforts to avert a potential new variant that has ruined its pandemic recovery plans. I learned.
UK security officials will be distributing PCR tests to passengers from China at Heathrow Airport from this Sunday and the results will be analyzed for possible new variants of Covid.
A random surveillance study was announced last week, but now the scope of the operation, which will screen up to 14,000 travelers from China every week, can be revealed.
The UK has joined other countries in stepping up surveillance of virus cases from China amid a veil of secrecy from Beijing as it lifted its zero-Covid policy last month.
Chinese health authorities have begun sharing more genome sequences of Covid cases with international organizations. I understands, but Downing Street said on Tuesday that the UK has yet to see a “significant improvement” in its data transparency.
The sampling at Heathrow Airport comes in addition to new rules coming into effect next Thursday requiring all travelers to the UK to take a Covid test before leaving China.
In the third phase, patients treated for Covid in UK hospitals will be asked if they have traveled to China in the past two weeks. If so, their PCR samples will be expedited to analyze new variants.
The measures come in response to Beijing opening its borders since January 8 and ending its zero-Covid policy last month, which has reportedly resulted in millions of cases per day in mainland China.
The UK, along with the US, France, Spain, Italy, Japan and Taiwan, has imposed travel restrictions, partly due to Beijing’s lack of transparency about the extent of the epidemic since the lockdown ended.
British government officials and scientists believe the biggest threat to China is not simply the number of cases in that country, as the dominant Chinese variant, BF.7, is already circulating in the UK, but the possibility of a new variant radically different from Omicron and its own sub-genres. , which have dominated the world over the past year, are on the rise and may escape immunity from vaccination and previous Covid infections.
Anyone who tests positive as part of a random test at Heathrow Airport does not need to be isolated as there are no more quarantine rules in the UK.
But the labs will step up surveillance of samples taken from people being tested at Heathrow and from patients at hospitals who have recently traveled to China.
The goal of 2,000 a day is to collect as large a sample as possible to discover new variants, the sources say.
Details of the pre-departure testing rules for travelers from China from next Thursday are still being worked out, but that would require legislation – the first such Covid-related legislation in nearly a year.
The legislative document, which can also be presented if the House of Commons is not in session, will be filed this week before Thursday’s deadline.
A UKHSA source said targeted monitoring of 2,000 passengers a day “will help us identify new options among travelers more quickly and get a better picture of the landscape of options circulating in China.”
“Sampling will help us get a representative picture of travelers entering the country, while other measures such as B. Pre-departure testing could reduce the number of people with Covid-19 arriving in the UK,” the source added.
In a clear response to the global government’s crackdown on travel from China, scientists and health officials in that country have become more transparent about the Covid data.
China’s health authorities were scheduled to meet with COVID experts from the World Health Organization on Tuesday after the WHO asked for more information about their data.
Since December 25, almost 600 genome sequences have been uploaded to the international Covid data sharing platform GISAID.
A scientist involved in the UK’s Covid response said the genome sequences uploaded by China match those from Japan and Taiwan, suggesting they were not fabricated and the BA.5 and BF.7 variants were clearly identified in prevention data.
Sharing was a good start, but China could do more, the source said.
Jiao Tong University in Shanghai is one of the academic institutions that have started sharing their data, according to GISAID.
Rishi Sunaka’s spokesman said the new rules for Chinese travelers do not change the rules for visitors from other countries with high rates of Covid.
He said: “One of the reasons for this was the lack of comprehensive medical information being exchanged.
“We are working with the Chinese government to encourage them – we are not alone – to get more information from them.”
“I think we were at the forefront as we saw both an increase in the number of cases and the decision was made due to the lack of comprehensive medical information provided by China.
“We will continue to discuss this with our Chinese counterparts for more information.
“At this time, I am not aware of any significant improvements in information sharing.”
Beijing reacted angrily to the global travel rules last week, saying they lack a “scientific basis”.
The request that patients be asked if they have recently traveled to China was initiated on Tuesday by the National Medical Director of the National Health Service for England, Professor Sir Steve Powys, MD. Thomas Waite, Deputy Chief Medical Officer for England, and Prof. Susan Hopkins, Chief Medical Officer of the UKHSA.
The warning said: “China is currently experiencing the largest and strongest wave of coronavirus since the start of the pandemic.
“While the number of publicly available genomes from China is much smaller compared to the UK, the available genomes from China and other countries tested suggest that sub-lineages of omicrons, including those known in Europe, are circulating. .
“Although the number of trips from China to the UK is currently low, it is likely to increase after the lifting of quarantine requirements upon returning to China on January 8, 2023.
“However, if new sub-lineages or variants emerge that can evade the immune response of carefully vaccinated people, they could pose a threat if they are successful enough to defeat other variants and spread around the world.”
“In the UK, there is a well-established process for identifying and classifying options. Therefore, as a precautionary measure, we ask for your assistance in identifying any cases of Covid-19 that have arrived in the past 14 days from China to a hospital for sequencing in the coming weeks. This allows us to better track options circulating in China.”
As travel restrictions were put in place in China, scientists are seeing a rapid rise in another variant, XBB.1.5, which currently accounts for 40 percent of cases in the United States.
Although it is more easily transmitted than other variants, it is a subline of Omicron and is not considered a major threat to immunity from vaccination and previous infections.
But Professor Tulio de Oliveira of Stellenbosch University in South Africa, whose team first identified cases of the Omicron variant in November 2021, said China’s and the US’s differing approaches are creating a new “cold war” of COVID-19 variants.
He tweeted: The “cold war” of COVID options? China with little data on its epidemic and its variants. The US with the new XBB.1.5 variant is spreading rapidly.
“The US wants to restrict Chinese travel, and what will happen to the US when the XBB.1.5 becomes as portable as some of their scientists think?”
Source: I News
I’m Raymond Molina, a professional writer and journalist with over 5 years of experience in the media industry. I currently work for 24 News Reporters, where I write for the health section of their news website. In my role, I am responsible for researching and writing stories on current health trends and issues. My articles are often seen as thought-provoking pieces that provide valuable insight into the state of society’s wellbeing.