So far, no new variants have emerged from China.

in #covidlast year

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https://gisaid.org/

China isn't doing a lot of genomic surveillance, but of the submissions to GISAID so far no new variants have emerged from China's current outbreak. Just circulating Omicron sub-variants that have been around Asia for some time, namely BF.7 and BA.5.2.

However due to the limited genomic surveillance the US is now going to require a negative coronavirus test for all incoming airline passengers from China. And the CDC is expanding its airport genomic surveillance program, especially in regards to flights arriving from Asia.

These efforts aren't meant to stop all imported coronavirus cases. They are just meant to limit the spread of any new potential variant. China is having tens of millions of new coronavirus cases per day and unfortunately isn't doing much genomic surveillance. So the risk of a new variant emerging is high.

The Omicron-specific bivalent booster is your best protection against the circulating variants. They are generally similar to the BA.5 strain that is in the vaccine, so you should be protected against severe COVID.