Fever Clinic of Peking University International Hospital Photo: VCG

The number of COVID-19 infections reported in Beijing has overtaken the city's influenza cases since late April, ranking in first place among all the 16 kinds of notifiable infectious diseases, media reports said on Tuesday citing the COVID-19 weekly reports released by the Beijing Center for Disease Prevention and Control.

According to the Beijing Center for Disease Prevention and Control, the number of cases involving 16 kinds of notifiable infectious diseases across Beijing has risen to 10,508 from May 1 to May 7, an increase of 4,070 cases in a week compared with the number from April 24 to April 30. The number of COVID-19 infections ranked at the top while influenza cases were in second place.

The Health Times affiliated to People's Daily reported that Beijing's influenza cases had topped COVID-19 ones since February 6, but were then overtaken by COVID-19 infections from April 24.

As an increasing number of Chinese netizens have been saying online that they were infected with COVID-19 for a second time in recent days, topics related to COVID-19 have again attracted public attention.

COVID-19 infections account for more than 20 percent of patients tested at fever clinics around Guangzhou, South China's Guangdong Province, China's top respiratory disease expert Zhong Nanshan revealed on Monday, adding that approximately 85 percent of the total population in the country, or around 1.1 billion to 1.2 billion people, have been infected with COVID-19 based on testing results.

Zhong said that in the next steps to combat COVID-19, it is necessary to develop vaccines that can cover the XBB variants, which include mRNA vaccines and recombinant protein vaccines.

On Sunday, China's first domestically developed mRNA vaccine for COVID-19 was initially put into use in Shijiazhuang, North China's Hebei Province.

The Central Leading Group for Novel Coronavirus Prevention and Control recommended the mRNA vaccine developed by CSPC Pharmaceutical Group and the protein subunit vaccine called SCTV01E, which was developed by Sino Cell Tech, to be used for booster shots as the two vaccines cover the Omicron variants.

Global Times