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According to a report released by the World Health Organization on August 11, local time, in the past 28 days, the world has reported nearly 1.5 million new cases of COVID-19 and more than 2,500 deaths. Compared with the previous 28 days, an increase of 80% and a decrease of 57%, respectively. On August 10, the latest preliminary risk assessment report released by the World Health Organization showed that the COVID-19 variant EG.5 and its subspectrum series grew the fastest among the COVID-19 variants in America, Europe and the Western Pacific, and were classified as “variants to watch out for.”
According to information, EG.5 is the “descendant” of the XBB.1.9.2 variant of the coronavirus Omicron subvariant. It was first discovered on February 17 this year. The way the virus enters cells and tissues within the body is also similar to XBB.1.5 and other Omicron variants.
Since the beginning of July, there have been more and more cases of COVID-19 infection caused by EG.5. According to the UK Health and Safety Authority, EG.5.1 currently accounts for about one-seventh of the COVID-19 cases detected in hospital tests. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that EG.5 has been prevalent in the US since April. Currently, it has caused about 17% of new cases of infection, surpassing other subvariants of Omicron to become the most common variant. According to the US federal health agency, the number of people hospitalized due to COVID-19 continues to increase across the US. The number of hospitalizations in the last week has increased by 12.5% to 9056.
Domestically, cases of the novel coronavirus “Sanyang” have appeared one after another in many places recently, and symptoms are generally mild. Wang Xinyu, deputy director of the Infectious Diseases Department at Huashan Hospital affiliated to Fudan University, said: We are now in a stage of relative stability, or a low point. Compared with June, the number of new severe COVID-19 cases and deaths reported nationwide in July decreased by 1,513 cases and 174 cases, respectively, over the same period.
Research shows that currently the main popular strain in China is still the XBB series variant. According to the immune cycle, it is estimated that the next COVID-19 epidemic may occur around November this fall.
In order to further prepare for the response to the COVID-19 epidemic in the fall and winter of this year, 4 departments including the National Health and Health Commission jointly issued the “Notice on Accomplishing the Work of Basic Public Health Services in 2023” on July 11. The notice mentioned that it is necessary to implement the national immunization plan, strengthen the training of vaccination personnel, improve the quality of vaccination services at the grass-roots level, and ensure that school-age children are vaccinated in a timely and full course. Continue to do a good job of vaccinating target groups for the COVID-19 vaccine in accordance with the unified deployment.
On July 31, the joint prevention and control mechanism of the State Council issued the latest vaccination plan, clearly recommending priority vaccination of the vaccine containing the XBB variant antigen for key population groups such as the elderly.
Zhongtai Securities said that as expectations that the second peak of COVID-19 infections may arrive continue to strengthen, it is recommended to start laying out opportunities in the COVID-19 industry chain from the perspectives of testing, prevention, and treatment.
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