China added more than 13,000 new Covid-19 infections. State media report 12,000 were asymptomatic (on Saturday).

The new variant was found in a case from a city around 70km from Shanghai.

  • evolves from the BA.1.1 branch of the omicron variant, Global Times reported
  • the subtype doesn’t match other coronavirus that’s causing Covid in China nor those submitted to GISAID (this is where scientists around the world share the coronavirus they sequenced, used as a method of monitoring mutations).

The Bloomberg (may be gated) report adds:

  • A case in Dalian city in northern China reported on Friday also didn’t match any coronavirus found domestically, the municipal government said on its WeChat account.
covid omicron