WHO Deems New COVID Strain a ‘Variant Under Monitoring’ Amid Resurgence in China

The World Health Organization says that the risk to public health posed by the variant is currently low.

This undated electron microscope image made available by the U.S. National Institutes of Health in February 2020 shows the Novel Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19, in yellow, emerging from the surface of cells, colored blue and pink, cultured in the lab. NIAID-RML/AP/The Canadian Press

The World Health Organization (WHO) has said that a new COVID-19 variant has been designated as a “variant under monitoring” amid reports indicating a resurgence of the virus in mainland China.

A document that was uploaded to the United Nations’ health body’s website on May 23 said that as of that date, the NB.1.8.1 variant is considered to have a low risk to public health “at the global level.”

“Currently approved COVID-19 vaccines are expected to remain effective to this variant against symptomatic and severe disease,” the WHO stated. “Despite a concurrent increase in cases and hospitalizations in some countries where NB.1.8.1 is widespread, current data do not indicate that this variant leads to more severe illness than other variants in circulation.”

The WHO defines a “variant under monitoring” as a COVID-19 strain that “may require prioritized attention and monitoring.” It’s of lower concern than either a “variant of interest” or a “variant of concern.”

The WHO’s May 23 update noted that NB.1.8.1 appears to be “growing rapidly compared to co-circulating variants” and added that “while there are reported increases in cases and hospitalizations” in reporting countries, “there are no reports to suggest that the associated disease severity is higher as compared to other circulating variants.” The WHO document did not specifically name any countries that may be reporting the variant.

“The available evidence on NB.1.8.1 does not suggest additional public health risks relative to the other currently circulating Omicron descendent lineages,” the WHO stated, referring to a previous COVID-19 variant that emerged in late 2021.

The update comes as health experts have said that China has seen an uptick in COVID-19 in recent weeks and noted that patients have reported severe, burning throat pain as a symptom.

In one example, Dr. Li Tongzeng, director of the Infectious Diseases Department at Beijing You’an Hospital, told Chinese state-run media that the resurgence of COVID-19, which began in March, is expected to peak sometime later in May.

The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention said in its most recent update on May 23 that the current dominant COVID-19 strain in the country is the NB.1.8.1 variant.

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the Chinese Communist Party has faced long-standing accusations of concealing data around the virus, particularly regarding the death toll. The virus first emerged in Wuhan, China, in late 2019. The Trump administration in April backed up what many have asserted since the beginning—that it spread from a top-security virology laboratory in Wuhan—after it changed its COVID-19 website to reflect that.

Dr. Jonathan Liu, professor at the Canadian College of Traditional Chinese Medicine and director of Kang Mei TCM Clinic and skeptic of data from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, noted that official data for March reported that only seven people died from COVID-19 during that month.

“With normal epidemic rates, such a low figure is implausible,“ Liu told The Epoch Times last week. ”Canada, with a sparse population and good sanitation, reported 1,915 COVID deaths from August last year to May this year—over 200 per month. How could China, with its dense population, have only seven deaths monthly?”

The Epoch Times has reached out to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for comment on the WHO report and reports that NB.1.8.1 is circulating in the United States.

A spokesperson for the CDC told several news outlets on May 24, “There have been fewer than 20 sequences of NB.1.8.1 in the U.S. baseline surveillance data to date, so it has not met the threshold for inclusion in the COVID Data Tracker dashboard.”

Mary Man contributed to this report.