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Tag: Coronavirus Testing

  • Study: No new COVID variants from China since zero-COVID policy lifted

    Study: No new COVID variants from China since zero-COVID policy lifted

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    Fears that China’s lifting of its zero-COVID policy could result in fresh coronavirus variants seem to have not (yet) materialized.

    A study published in The Lancet on Wednesday found there had been no new COVID-19 variants in the country since it lifted its draconian policy last year, a move which triggered a surge in cases and deaths.

    The analysis by researchers in China of more than 400 new cases in Beijing between November 14 and December 20 shows that more than 90 percent were of the Omicron subvariants BA.5.2 and BF.7.

    These variants are similar to the ones circulating in the EU/EEA during the fall of 2022, before the surge in cases in China, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) said, and there is no evidence they pose a greater risk compared with those circulating in the EU/EEA now. 

    China has been criticized for its lack of transparency throughout the pandemic, including during this most recent wave of infections. 

    But the EU’s disease agency, the ECDC, confirmed that its own analysis — which included sequencing cases detected through airport arrivals in several European countries and wastewater analysis of airplanes arriving in Europe from China — found that BA.5.2 and BF.7 were dominant, although they cautioned that this wastewater data is “quite limited and are still being verified.” 

    While the authors of the Lancet study conducted their analysis in Beijing, they write that the results “could be considered a snapshot of China.”

    But others caution against such a leap.

    “The SARS-CoV-2 molecular epidemiological profile in one region of a vast and densely populated country cannot be extrapolated to the entire country,” write Wolfgang Preiser and Tongai Maponga of Stellenbosch University in South Africa in a linked comment in The Lancet. The two were not involved in the study. 

    “In other regions of China, other evolutionary dynamics might unfold, possibly including animal species that could become infected by human beings and spill back a further evolved virus,” they write.

    The prevalence of each of the two variants — BF.7 and BA.5.2 — varies from province to province, World Health Organization spokesperson Christian Lindmeier told POLITICO, referring to data from the China CDC.

    Travel restrictions

    China’s lifting of its zero-COVID policies at the end of last year led to EU countries recommending a raft of travel measures for visitors from China.

    At its last meeting on Friday, the EU’s de facto emergency crisis forum, the IPCR, decided to maintain these measures for now. The issue will be reevaluated at the next IPCR meeting scheduled for February 16.

    Europe’s airport lobby, ACI Europe, says it would like passenger testing to be dropped.

    “We support getting away from testing passengers as a way to track COVID-19, especially in the context of the comprehensive assessment issued by the ECDC on the lack of expected impact of COVID-19 surge in China on the epidemiological situation in the EU/EEA. Airports and airlines call for any travel recommendations to be scientifically driven and risk-based, which is regrettably not the case now,”Agata Łyżnik, communications manager at ACI Europe, the European airports’ lobby, told POLITICO.

    With additional reporting from Mari Eccles.

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    Sarah Taissir Bencharif

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  • Italy finds no new COVID variants among Chinese visitors so far

    Italy finds no new COVID variants among Chinese visitors so far

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    ROME — There is no sign of new COVID-19 variants so far among passengers arriving in Italy from China in recent days, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said, as she called for a new, EU-wide testing regime to guard against the threat from a resurgent coronavirus.

    On Wednesday, Italy became the first European country to introduce mandatory virus testing for people arriving from China. Beijing’s decision to lift lockdown policies earlier this month triggered a surge in cases, spurring concerns around the world that a dangerous new variant could emerge.

    At a press conference in Rome on Thursday, Meloni said genomic sequencing of positive cases arriving in Milan’s airports since last week had shown only the Omicron variant. 

    Meloni said that authorities in Lombardy had been sequencing the virus, “because we need to know if what is arriving is something we have already seen, and so covered by vaccines or not … Of 30 cases we are sequencing, the first 15 are all Omicron, which is already present in Italy,” she said. “So, for right now, it’s quite reassuring.”

    Meloni said the government had asked the EU for a bloc-wide response on mandatory testing, otherwise, she feared Italy’s testing policy risked being ineffective. “On China, we have taken immediate action,” she said. “But this measure may not be completely effective unless it is taken by the whole EU, because we can do it for direct flights but not those with a transit.”

    Meloni said the government had written to the EU commissioner for health and was “hoping” and “waiting” to hear if the EU would agree to Italy’s request. On Thursday, EU health officials met to review the situation and resolved to continue working toward a bloc-wide response, but stopped short of setting out any details on new action.

    Italian Health Minister Orazio Schillaci said the low use and efficacy of vaccines had helped create ideal conditions for a new wave of infections in China. “There are few vaccinations in China, a poor level of protection of the vaccines used, and few doses … Omicron until recently circulated little with low hybrid immunity,” he told a Senate briefing in Rome. “Then this autumn came the perfect storm.”

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    Hannah Roberts

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  • So much for coordination: EU countries ignore pandemic lessons amid China’s COVID surge

    So much for coordination: EU countries ignore pandemic lessons amid China’s COVID surge

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    It didn’t take long for EU countries to abandon the biggest lesson of the pandemic. 

    The principle of collective response to health threats, which underpins the European Union’s so-called Health Union, was ignored at the first sign of trouble. 

    All it took was a surge in COVID cases in China for several EU countries to go their own way and implement travel measures that the bloc’s scientific experts have criticized as “unjustified.” 

    With China abandoning its zero-COVID policy, countries such as the U.S. and Japan have tightened border controls for travelers from China. Italy was the first EU country to act, imposing mandatory testing for travelers arriving from China, leaving the EU to scramble to get ahead of another disjointed bloc-wide response that marked some of the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.

    A meeting of the EU Security Committee on Thursday resulted in countries deciding to not take any joint measures on travel, with the Commission tweeting that “coordination of national responses to serious cross border threats to health is crucial.” But that hasn’t stopped Spain from imposing its own measures, with the health ministry announcing Friday that travelers arriving from China need to be fully vaccinated or have a negative test.

    The fear from countries like Italy, the U.S., Japan and now Spain is that China could be a breeding ground for new variants. But the current scientific opinion is that this is unlikely, given that China is way behind the curve when it comes to variants and those that are present in China won’t be able to compete with the strains circulating outside the country. 

    But that’s not stopping an EU political spat from kicking off. 

    With Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni urging the EU to take joint action, acknowledging that action by Italy alone “may not be completely effective unless it is taken by the whole EU,” she’s being joined by prominent EU parliamentarians. The head of the European Parliament’s center-right bloc, the European People’s Party’s Manfred Weber, has called for bloc-wide mandatory testing for travelers from China.

    Knee-jerk responses

    There are echoes of earlier national differences on COVID policies, “with more competition rather than coordination about what to do,” said Paul Belcher, consultant in European public health and adviser to the European Public Health Alliance. But Belcher said this was finally overcome with joint approaches on things such as vaccines and new EU structures that made decision-making processes easier. 

    These included the new EU Health Union, which is meant to ensure better health security coordination when a crisis hits. The underpinning principle? Prepare and respond collectively.

    Now, the disagreements over China “show that this default to knee-jerk national responses hasn’t entirely gone away,” said Belcher. 

    EU countries aren’t done with discussing the issue. POLITICO’s Brussels Playbook reports that the Council’s so-called integrated political crisis response mechanism — the EU’s defacto crisis forum — will take place next week.

    Patients in the lobby of the Chongqing No. 5 People’s Hospital in Chongqing | Noel Celis/AFP via Getty Images

    European Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides also indicated to health ministers in a letter sent Thursday evening that the situation was “evolving.” She said that countries should assess their national practices regarding genomic surveillance of the virus — and to scale up capacity if needed — plus implement wastewater surveillance, including sewage water from airports.

    “If a new variant of the SARS-CoV2 virus appears — be it in China or in the EU — we must detect it early in order to be prepared to react fast,” Kyriakides said in the letter seen by POLITICO. Guidance from the Commission is also on its way.

    Where Kyriakides did express concern was with the lack of reliable epidemiological data coming out of China. The health commissioner has also reached out to her Chinese counterparts and offered public health expertise including variant-adapted EU vaccine donation.

    China’s secrecy is also a concern raised by World Health Organization Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who has called for “more detailed information” from China.

    “In the absence of comprehensive information from #China, it is understandable that countries around the world are acting in ways that they believe may protect their populations,” he tweeted. 

    Carlo Martuscelli contributed reporting.

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    Ashleigh Furlong and Suzanne Lynch

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  • Beijing clamps down on social media critics of COVID policies

    Beijing clamps down on social media critics of COVID policies

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    As China’s dramatic U-turn on its zero-COVID measures continues, Beijing has shut down or suspended more than a 1,000 social media accounts in a clampdown on critics of its pandemic policies.

    Sina Weibo, a Chinese equivalent of Twitter, said it had issued temporary or permanent bans on 1,120 accounts after addressing more than 12,800 violations, including attacks on experts, scholars and medical workers, the Associated Press reported.

    China in December abandoned its strict zero-COVID policy, which included months-long lockdowns, after a wave of protests against the draconian measures spread to several cities and university campuses across the country, with demonstrators in Shanghai calling for President Xi Jinping to step down. Since then, the country has seen a new surge in cases, overwhelming Chinese health services and alarming the rest of the world.

    The anti-lockdown protests, some of which were organized through social media, were the first major show of resistance from the public under Xi’s rule. Freedom of speech is limited under China’s authoritarian government and criticism of the Communist Party often brings punishments. 

    Sina Weibo “will continue to increase the investigation and cleanup of all kinds of illegal content, and create a harmonious and friendly community environment for the majority of users,” the company said in a statement dated Thursday, according to the AP. 

    China is bracing for the outbreak to spread further as people travel en masse from the country’s cities for the Lunar New Year later this month. Nonetheless, as of January 8, travelers arriving in China will no longer face coronavirus quarantine measures.

    The skyrocketing number of patients has already led to overcrowded hospitals and empty pharmacy shelves, with people hoarding medicines like paracetamol, a common medicine to treat pain and fever.

    A forecast by health analytics company Airfinity estimated in November that China risks between 1.3 million and 2.1 million deaths by lifting its zero-COVID policy, due to low vaccination rates, the use of less effective vaccines, and a lack of hybrid immunity. 

    The EU has struggled to mount a coordinated response to COVID risk from arrivals from China since travel bans from the country were lifted. Italy was the first to break from the pack, announcing its own border control measures, with France, Germany, Spain and Sweden following suit — drawing a rebuke from Beijing.

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    Susannah Savage

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  • BillionToOne Announces Groundbreaking New COVID-19 Test Unlocking One Million Daily Tests

    BillionToOne Announces Groundbreaking New COVID-19 Test Unlocking One Million Daily Tests

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    Unique Testing Protocol From Precision Diagnostics Company Unlocks One Million Tests Per Day: The BillionToOne COVID-19 test uses different sets of instruments and chemicals from existing COVID-19 tests, enabling labs to unlock a new set of unused capacity.

    Press Release
    –


    updated: Apr 7, 2020


    MENLO PARK, Calif., April 7, 2020 (Newswire.com)
    –
    9​The precision diagnostics company BillionToOne today announced a significant development in the struggle against the COVID-19 pandemic. BillionToOne has developed a highly accurate and cost-effective novel COVID-19 test protocol, unlocking more than one million testing capacity per day in the United States alone. Test reagents will be available in two weeks, pending manufacturing of kits and EUA from the FDA.

    “We’ve all seen the impact this pandemic has had on every aspect of our daily lives,” Dr. Oguzhan Atay, the CEO of BillionToOne, said. “From the loss of lives to the damage to the economy to the strain on the healthcare system, the coronavirus has delivered a crippling blow to the country. We’re honored to be on the front lines of this fight against the pandemic, and we’re certain that this unique technology will help save lives and stop the spread of the virus.”

    As detailed by leading health professionals, extensive testing – over 10 times the current capacity – is needed to stop the spread of the coronavirus in the United States and other countries. At the present moment, current quantitative PCR (qPCR) methods do not support the testing volume needed for rapid COVID-19 response. Additionally, the extreme surge in demand for the same reagents and instruments have caused multiple bottlenecks in the supply chain.

    Using the patent-pending qSanger™ spike-in and proprietary machine learning algorithms, BillionToOne’s COVID-19 assay takes advantage of the 30X higher throughput Sanger sequencing capacity (1,536 samples on qSanger at a time vs 48 samples on qPCR at a time). qSanger™ technology unlocks each Sanger instrument to automatically perform 3,840 tests per day, and there are hundreds of instruments available from the Human Genome Project alone, unlocking millions of testing capacity per day.

    The BillionToOne COVID-19 test uses different sets of instruments and chemicals from existing COVID-19 tests, enabling labs to unlock a new set of unused capacity. BillionToOne sequences the virus’ genome – making the test extremely sensitive and specific, on par or better than other COVID-19 tests available. Additionally, the test is easily adoptable at any labs with Sanger Sequencers, with minimum training.

    Test reagents will be available in two weeks, pending manufacturing of kits and EUA from the FDA. International laboratories without EUA requirements can start testing immediately by using their own reagents and the BillionToOne’s bioinformatics pipeline.

    “I’m extremely grateful to the hard work and dedication of the BillionToOne team to get this vital resource developed so quickly,” Oguzhan said. “Our mission here at BillionToOne is to remove the fear of the unknown by making powerful molecular diagnostics available to all. We believe our COVID-19 test can contribute greatly in removing the unknowns from the COVID-19 crisis response.”

    About BillionToOne

    BillionToOne, headquartered in Menlo Park, California, is a precision diagnostics company with a mission to make molecular diagnostics more accurate, efficient, and accessible for all. The company’s patent-pending QCT molecular counter platform is the only technology platform that can accurately count DNA molecules to the single-count level. BillionToOne’​s first product, UNITY, is the first and only noninvasive prenatal screening that tests fetal cell-free DNA for cystic fibrosis (CF) and spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) through a single sample of the mother’s blood. BillionToOne was co-founded by Oguzhan Atay, Ph.D., and David Tsao, Ph.D. For more information, visit www.billiontoone.com.

    Inquiries:

    For any questions regarding partnership and test adoption, please contact covid19@billiontoone.com. 

    For any media inquiries, contact media@billiontoone.com. 

    General Contact: Oscar Cabot, Head of Marketing ocabot@Billiontoone.com

    Source: BillionToOne, Inc.

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