what it is and what are its symptoms

The coronavirus continues to mutate, and its new variants still represent, to this day, a threat to the population. Despite the fact that in Catalonia say goodbye to the vaccinodromes, in Chinawhere an outbreak of a new type of Covid has spread in recent weeks, the situation is very different.

This is the strain BF.7a variant with a contagion rate up to three times higher than Omicron which has forced the Chinese population to shut themselves up in their homes after the escalation of contagions. Although this sublineage of BA.5 presents some differences with respect to incubation time, its symptoms are identical to those already known.

Incubation and relapse

The infection capacity of BF.7 is. superior than any of its predecessors. Their dangerousness goes through incubation periods shorterwhich gives rise to the transmission to higher speed and symptoms appear before. However, it is worth noting that there are a large number of infected persons asymptomatic with this variant. As for the ability to cause relapsesThis is also higher than that of any other subvariant of the virus.

Same symptoms

In addition to China, other countries such as. United States o Spain have already reported cases of people infected with this new BF.7 variant, whose symptoms are practically identical to the previous strains: fever, headache, mucus, sore throat, cough and fatigue.

📍BF7 VARIANT-If the R0 value of *10-18* for. #BF7 variant is true (2-3x more than old #Omicron), and resistant to neutralization even if vaccinated with older vaccines & #COVID infections of BA1/5, then China will be in a world of hurt-Hospitals near full. https://t.co/7jujtuDEtt pic.twitter.com/ZvCAra9EDj

– Eric Feigl-Ding (@DrEricDing). December 14, 2022

However, the epidemiologist Feigl-Ding warns that the impact of this strain on China and the excessive increase in the number of cases in December is due to a lower immunity and a lower vaccination rate. Therefore, the expert warned of the risk of collapse the Asian country, where the 80 % of hospital health care personnel are infected.