Virus Photo: VCG

China's relatively-strong herd immunity at present will prevent a new wave of COVID-19 infections over the short term, according to medical experts as the first XBB.1.5 case was reported in the Chinese mainland, raising public concerns over a possible new outbreak.

The concerns resulted from a report released by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Wednesday, which confirmed a case infected by the new XBB.1.5 variant was detected for the first time on the Chinese mainland since December, 2022.

Hashtags relating to XBB.1.5 have quickly began trending on China's Twitter-like Sina Weibo on Friday. Some netizens questioned whether the new variant will trigger another wave of infections as some people seemed to have contracted the virus for a second time. 

The increase of people infected by the new variant will add risks to secondary infection throughout the community, shortening the protection period of the herd immunity. But an overall residual level of herd immunity will bring down the chances of a new wave of infections in the short term, according to Li Tongzeng, chief physician with the respiratory and infectious diseases department at Beijing You'an Hospital, in an interview with China News Service on Saturday.

Li said there were very few people who have had a fever recently who are also being infected by COVID-19 for the first time, with a majority of fever cases being reported to medical workers not related to coronavirus. 

Zeng Guang, a former chief epidemiologist at the Chinese CDC, said the impact brought by the COVID-19 on people's life has not vanished despite the overall situation stablizing. 

"Whether the new variant will emerge and take hold, whether the infection rate will rebound, and whether new strains will spread from overseas, remains our monitoring priority," Zeng emphasized.