China finds new Covid-19 subtype amid record cases

China added more than 13,000 new Covid-19 infections with state media reporting a case infected with a new subtype of the Omicron variant.

The new iteration of the virus, isolated from a mild Covid-19 patient in a city less than 70km from Shanghai, evolves from the BA.1.1 branch of the Omicron variant, Global Times reported, citing sequencing data from local health authorities. The report said the subtype doesn’t match other coronavirus that’s causing Covid in China nor those submitted to GISAID, where scientists around the world share the coronavirus they sequenced as a way to monitor mutations.A case in Dalian city in northern China reported on Friday also didn’t match any coronavirus found domestically, the municipal government said on its WeChat account.

Almost 12,000 of the cases reported nationwide on Saturday were labelled asymptomatic. Vice premier Sun Chunlan arrived in the country’s virus hotspot of Shanghai to oversee prevention efforts, as she ordered officials to curtail the outbreak “as soon as possible,” according to Xinhua.

Shanghai on Sunday ordered its residents to undergo two more rounds of tests for Covid-19 as public anger grows over how authorities in China’s most populous city are tackling a record coronavirus surge.

Cases in the financial hub exceeded 8,000 on Saturday including 7,788 asymptomatic infections. Shanghai will start a new round of mass testing on Monday, authorities said.

Sun, who previously went to Jilin to oversee lockdown measures in the northeast province, ordered Shanghai officials to “resolutely” conduct measures to stop the outbreak.

All of the metropolis’ 25 million residents are currently under some form of quarantine. Stories of how Shanghai separates Covid-positive children from their parents have gone viral in the country and triggered widespread public anger. In a rare instance of grassroots lobbying, several residents reposted a statement on the WeChat and Weibo social media platforms saying they wanted asymptomatic or mild cases to be allowed to isolate at home, after reports of unsanitary and crowded conditions at quarantine facilities. In the city of Sanya in Hainan province, authorities suspended all transportation to stymie the spread of Covid, according to a post on an official WeChat account.Despite the spike in infections, China has recorded no new Covid-19 deaths since March 20th, when two were added for a total 4,638.