China says respiratory illness outbreak is finally easing

China says respiratory disease contained as Covid cases of new variant relatively low

China says it is seeing a reduction in cases of respiratory disease after a wave pneumonia-like illness swept the country’s hospitals.

There has been a decline in the overall volumes of outpatient and emergency treatment for respiratory diseases, the National Health Commission spokesperson Mi Feng said in a press conference that was live-streamed on Sunday.

Mr Mi said the country “effectively met” the healthcare needs of an increasing number of patients with respiratory illness by expanding health services, including fever clinics, paediatric outpatient clinics and bed capacity.

He said surveillance showed that patients admitted at fever clinics and outpatient departments at the grassroots level accounted for 44 per cent of the nationwide medical institutions’ reception volume.

The rise in pneumonia-like cases in China sparked global concerns last month after the World Health Organisation issued a formal request to China for more data following reports of “undiagnosed pneumonia” among children on 21 November.

The WHO cited a 13 November press conference of the National Health Commission in saying that there has been an increase in “influenza-like illness” in northern China since mid-October, unlike the past three years.

The Chinese health ministry said there has been a rise in cases linked to viruses such as influenza, rhinoviruses, the respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, the adenovirus, as well as bacteria such as mycoplasma pneumoniae, this autumn and winter.

Chinese media reported long queues at paediatric clinics across the country and there was a 30-50 per cent increase in hospital visits compared to the same period in previous years.

The Chinese authorities nonetheless insisted that they had found no “unusual or novel diseases”, and said the wave of illness was linked to the simultaneous circulation of several types of pathogens, most prominently influenza.

On Sunday, Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) official Chang Zhaorui also said that the public risk from new Covid-19 variant JN.1, a sub-lineage of BA. 2.86, was “relatively low”.

JN.1 is a Covid variant that descended from BA.2.86 – the Pirola variant from Omicron – that health experts said were very similar but differ in their spike proteins.

Mr Chang said that experts evaluated the prevalence of BA.2.86 variant sequences at a “low” epidemic level. He noted that cases of BA2.86, particularly those originating from imported cases, have been on a rapid rise since November, consistent with global patterns.

He said there were 160 reported cases related to BA.2.86 and its sub-lineage, out of which 148 were imported cases, and 12 sequences were identified as originating domestically.