New Omicron variant inspires new control measures

With a significantly lower pathogenicity of the current Omicron variant of the novel coronavirus, the focus of the country's COVID-19 control have shifted to the intervention of potential severe cases.

Zhong Nanshan, a prominent respiratory expert, commented on the country's COVID-19 control measures, which have been optimized, as he met the media on Friday.

The country took strict containment measures when the strains before Omicron caused relatively high death rates, which used to hit 4.6 percent.

The Omicron variant, though highly transmissible, leads to death rate of less than 0.1 percent in some major cities, Zhong said.

The Omicron variant, however, causes diseases mostly in the upper respiratory tract and seldom causes pneumonia.

The optimized measures are meant to be more precise. Guangzhou, Guangdong province, for example, now places importance on the control in eight types of venues, including nursing homes, and promotes vaccination to guard the special and fragile groups of people against severe and critical situations, he said.

Speaking of the measure that infected people with no or mild symptoms can now quarantine at home if conditions allow, Zhong said that the majority of them do not need any treatment and will improve in five to seven days with more rest. This measure helps ensure that medical institutions have enough resources to handle serious cases.

As the control measures are optimized, infections will possibly increase, Zhong said, suggesting that hospitals establish separate zones to treat infected people who have other diseases.

As Guangzhou implements optimized control measures, Guangzhou Laboratory and its partners predict that the daily infection will peak in late January or February of next year, against which peak tackling measures are available. The infection is expected to stabilize in March, said Yang Zifeng, deputy director of Guangzhou Institute of Respiratory Health.