https://finance.yahoo.com/m/f9a80ad9-aea1-332f-9c09-6d694e1bc5aa/new-virus-unrelated-to.html
https://www.barrons.com/articles/new-virus-unrelated-to-coronavirus-is-identified-in-china-as-covid-outbreaks-continue-51660138031?siteid=yhoof2
Researchers in China have identified a novel virus likely spread to humans from animals—though completely unrelated to the coronavirus—in 35 people. The discovery comes as the country battles its worst Covid outbreak in weeks, with dozens of regions locked down.
The so-called LayV is a newly identified member of the henipaviruses, a group that can infect humans and have high fatality rates. In the subjects tested, some whose samples date back 1-2 years, all had fever, alongside other serious symptoms such as anorexia, vomiting, and impaired liver function.
The findings were reported in the New England Journal of Medicine by Chinese and international researchers.
No deaths were reported, nor was human-to-human spread, though the authors caution little can be drawn from their small sample size. Other henipaviruses can be spread by humans, and at the initial Covid-19 outbreak, researchers felt certain the coronavirus could be spread only from animals to humans.
The outbreak comes as China fights numerous outbreaks in eight different regions of the country, including several popular tourist destinations. While the new case numbers are small by international standards, they put on display President Xi Jinping’s commitment to China’s zero-Covid policy, which aims to test for and contain the virus regardless of economic costs.
Roughly half of the 4,000 new infections since Aug. 1 have been on the island province of Hainan, one of the country’s most popular summer spots for family vacationers and surfers. Millions of residents there have been put on lockdown, some prohibited from leaving their hotels or apartments. Chinese media reported that no one can leave the island—including nearly 180,000 out-of-towners—unless they provide five consecutive negative Covid tests.
Elsewhere, a flareup continued in the city of Yiwu, a major manufacturing hub 90 minutes by train from Shanghai. Authorities there have imposed citywide testing, and implemented movement restrictions and lockdowns targeted by districts.
Another manufacturing region, Guangdong province, reported roughly 60 new cases Tuesday, but they were spread out and had not resulted in notably disruptive control measures.
In a first since the start of the pandemic, cases were detected in the remote western region of Tibet, including the tourist capital of Lhasa. Authorities closed the Potala Palace, the iconic World Heritage Site symbolic of Tibetan Buddhism. Other tourist sites were closed as well, and mass testing was mandated in Lhasa and Tibet’s second city, Shigatse, famously known as the Gateway to Everest. Entrance in and out of Shigatse was closed for at least three days this week, local authorities said.
Next to Hong Kong, the gambling mecca of Macau was just emerging from a July lockdown when a nearby case was found over the weekend. All of the city’s 700,000 residents were required to take Covid tests on Sunday and Monday.
The city has not yet reverted into lockdown mode, but the July closure, which shut even the normally hands-off casinos, closed the gambling facilities for two weeks and resulted in a 95% year-on-year drop in revenues to $70 million, the lowest on record, according to city officials.
Other outbreaks were ongoing in Xinjiang, the far west desert region popular with local tourists but infamous for concentration camps holding what human rights groups said could be more than one million Muslim Uyghur minorities.
New cases continued as well in Hubei, including the capital Wuhan, where the virus is thought to have first emerged, and in Guangxi, which borders Vietnam.
Write to <editors@barrons.com>
(post is archived)