China finds European strain in recent outbreak
China has released genome sequencing data for the coronavirus responsible for a recent outbreak in Beijing, with officials saying yesterday it identified a European strain based on preliminary studies.
China, which had been under pressure to make the data public sooner rather than later as Covid-19 cases mount in the country’s capital, said it had also submitted the data to the World Health Organisation.
The US administration has blamed the Chinese government for not handling the initial outbreak in central China properly and moving too slowly to contain the epidemic, leading to mounting cases and deaths in the United States.
China has rejected that accusation, saying it wasted no time in releasing information about the epidemic including the genome sequence of the initial coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan. In the latest Beijing outbreak, the WHO said on Sunday it had been informed by the Chinese of ongoing investigations into the source of the cluster and the extent of the infections. It requested the genetic sequences to be released as soon as possible.
The genome sequencing was published late Thursday, and had also been shared with the WHO and the Global Influenza Data Initiative (GISAID), said the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Virus genome sequencing is a vital and rapidly-developing tool in the diagnosis of the disease Covid-19 and in understanding the spread and control of the new
coronavirus. Details published on China’s National Microbiology Data Centre website revealed the Beijing genome data was based on three samples — two human and one environmental — collected on June 11.
That was the same day the Chinese capital reported its first Covid-19 infection in months. In the eight days since, Beijing has reported a total of 183 cases, linked to the sprawling wholesale food centre of Xinfadi in the city’s southwest. “According to preliminary genomic and epidemiological study results, the virus is from Europe, but it is different from the virus currently spreading in Europe,” CDC official Zhang Yong was cited as saying in an article published yesterday by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection on its website.