Yasmina Kattou
As Beijing lifted Covid-related restrictions and Chinese people started to travel again, many countries, including France, implemented various measures to control arrivals. Devices which are explained by the explosion of cases in China, in particular caused by the extremely contagious sub-variant BF.7.
From January 8, Chinese travelers will be allowed to travel freely. But since December 7 and the end of the zero Covid policy, the number of contaminations has exploded in the country: 30 million cases per day, according to some doctors. While Beijing continues to lift its restrictions to cope in Europe, no joint measures have been put in place between the 27 member countries of the European Union.
Only case-by-case protocols have been decreed and after Spain and Italy, France has decided to impose a negative test on departure, the wearing of a mask is compulsory on the plane and random checks on arrival .
A subvariant that escapes acquired immunity
If the epidemic flares up, it is because the population has not become sufficiently contaminated, the protection provided by Chinese vaccines is deemed insufficient, but probably also because of the BF.7 variant, which seems to circulate a lot in China, especially in Beijing. What do we know about this variant?
BF.7 is a cousin sub-variant of Omicron and it is said to be a bit more contagious. According to initial data, a person infected with BF.7 could in turn infect between 10 and 18 people. With the other variants of Omicron, a patient transmits his disease to 5 people on average. The symptoms caused by the BF.7 strain remain the same: fever, cough, sore throat. Sometimes diarrhea and vomiting.
This cousin of Omicron is not new, since it has been circulating in France since last spring. In October, BF.7 represented 10% of the positive tests sequenced against less than 1% today. According to a recent study, the subvariant escapes acquired immunity. This means that a vaccinated or recently infected person can fall ill again from this strain.