A prestigious epidemiologist reveals whether it will be necessary to return to confinement with the new Covid variants

The WHO has recommended that European countries use masks indoors and on public transport due to Covid cases in China. As confirmed by the country’s authorities this Saturday, between December 8 (when the restrictions were lifted) and January 12, almost 60,000 people have died.

The debate on the Covid is back in the spotlight. Contagions in China have skyrocketed since the government lifted the restrictions on December 8. As confirmed by the authorities this Saturday, as of January 12, almost 60,000 people have already died . Public Health experts such as Rafael Bengoa have called for stricter control of travelers from China in view of the forecast of a “brutal” number of infections due to the celebration of the Chinese New Year, which takes place from the next 22nd of this month January and in which millions of trips are planned.

The explosion of infections in the Asian country has set off alarm bells in the rest of the world. The epidemiologist Quique Bassat explained in ‘Julia en la Onda’ the keys to the powerful transmission in China . First, China has ended its ultra-restrictive “Covid 0” policy, and going from this to “open bar” has skyrocketed infections. In addition, the low vaccination rate and the low efficacy of Chinese vaccines form “the perfect storm.”

On the other hand, experts have detected a new subvariant of Covid that represents almost half of the infections in the United States and of which cases have already been detected in Madrid, the Basque Country and Cantabria. It is a new lineage of Omicron ( XBB.1.5. ) and that some baptized as ‘Kraken’.

It is more contagious, but not more virulent
Despite the fact that all the experts have established that this new subvariant is not more deadly than other previous strains , the WHO has warned of its rapid expansion due to how contagious it is and how quickly it mutates.

Our concern is that it is so transmissible because the more it circulates, the more opportunities it will have to mutate ,” explained María Van Kerkhove, doctor and WHO leader for Covid.

The future of the new variant: will there be more restrictions?

Despite the fact that three years have passed since the arrival of the pandemic and that many countries already treat the disease as if it were endemic, the WHO has not yet decreed the end of Covid-19 . In fact, both the discovery of the new subvariant and the increase in infections in China have set off the alarms of the international organization, which has called for increased protection measures in European countries, such as indoor masks (which are no longer used) . applies in Spain) , long flights and public transport.

This recommendation has opened a new debate among the population on whether the recovery of measures already withdrawn could include a new confinement in the event that the situation becomes excessively complicated. About this, they have asked David Heymann, an epidemiologist at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and head of the Chatham House Center for Global Health Security, who has reviewed in a conversation with the BBC where the world is at . facing the challenge of Covid-19

Heymann has assured that it is essential to continue monitoring the statistics and the incidence of the countries despite the fact that many of them already treat the virus as endemic. Despite this, he does not consider that his guard is being lowered with the disease , since there are vaccines that work and can be quickly adapted to new variants.

To the question of whether it could return to the time of restrictions and confinements, it is not something that he contemplates : “I don’t think so. Surveillance will be maintained and, if there is any concern, the vaccines will be updated as soon as possible .” In fact, he recalled that the lockdowns were imposed when there were no vaccines available

What are the symptoms?

There is still no study that shows that this new subvariant is more serious than its predecessors . In fact, in terms of symptoms, its characteristics are similar to those of other variants, mild in most cases.

Johns Hopkins University virologist Andrew Pekosz told CNBC that Covid symptoms with the new variant have not changed and flu-like symptoms are less common.

Arwady said that the symptoms of COVID have not changed with the new variant , although he noted that flu-like symptoms are less common, especially in people vaccinated and boosted

Therefore, we could say that the symptoms associated with XBB.1.5 are the following:

• Fever.
• Cough.
• Sore throat.
• Fatigue.
• Runny and stuffy nose.
• Headache and joints.
• Loss of taste and smell.