The People’s Republic of China, which has now relaxed its zero-tolerance policy against COVID-19, could become an annual “supplier” of a new strain of coronavirus. A similar story is unfolding with the flu virus, whose annual epidemic usually begins in China, virologist Pavel Volchkov, head of the MIPT genome engineering laboratory, told socialbites.ca.
“Now China is moving away from its zero tolerance policy and weakening its anti-epidemic measures. This means that the country has chosen a strategy – getting sick under control. It was the same in Russia, but we passed case peaks before and developed herd immunity. The process of establishing herd immunity in China can take a year or two. Therefore, it is quite natural for a new version of the coronavirus to occur within the large Chinese population.”
According to the virologist, the actual number of infected SARS-CoV-2 in China could be much higher than 2,000 people per day. The way the infection developed in China can be seen in South Korea and Japan, which are in close interaction with China and can now see a significant number of infected cases per day.
South Korea and Japan have so far followed roughly the same epidemic strategy as China. Therefore, according to Pavel Volchkov, the population of these countries can also participate in the formation of a new species. But of course, they cannot be compared to China in terms of population.
“The genesis of a new strain is a model. If a virus has passed through a million people in a row, it cannot help changing. A new version of the micron will be created that will improve protection against existing vaccines and existing herd immunity. Virologist, formerly China’s “supplier” of flu viruses believes it has been and will now produce new strains of coronavirus.
Meanwhile, in Russia, the structure of respiratory viruses is currently dominated by the influenza virus and to take 70% of all pathogens present in the population.