COVID- 19 Clinical and Surveillance Data--Dec 9, 2022 to Jan 23, 2023, China

Since the occurrence of COVID-19, the China government has adhered to the strategy of "people first, life first", adhered to the combination of strategic stability and measure flexibility, and constantly optimized and adjusted the prevention and control measures for protecting the lives and health of the people to the greatest extent. Since January 8, 2023, based on the evaluation of the virus mutation, prevention, and control situation, according to the Infectious Diseases Prevention and Control Law, COVID-19 disease has been under Category B management in China.

 

In order to prepare for the new stage of prevention and control of the infection of SARS-CoV-2 virus under Category B management, China’s National Health Commission (NHC) and the National Bureau of Disease Control and Prevention (NBDCP) have urgently established multiple new surveillance systems for specific purposes. Firstly, surveillance of infection including the community-based monitoring of nucleic acid and antigen testing, and sentinel community surveillance of nucleic acid and antigen testing. Secondly, for surveilling clinic visits and hospitalizations, including daily visits in all fever clinics (consulting rooms), mild to severe infections, and fatalities from the virus in all hospitals, and outpatient clinics (emergency) surveillance in sentinel hospitals. Thirdly, for surveilling the virus mutations in the SARS-CoV-2 virus, sentinel hospitals were selected to collect samples from patients for testing and genetic sequencing analysis. In addition, the vaccination surveillance system has been continued in China.

 

The newly abovementioned surveillance systems were unified and deployed, the data was and collected and reported by all provincial-level administrative divisions (PLADs) to be integrated at the national level. This data was/is mainly used to evaluate the overall trend situation of the epidemic, and the clinical and epidemiological characteristics of the disease need to be further investigated and analyzed, which is ongoing.

 

Based on the results from multiple surveillance systems, the recent wave of COVID-19 in China has already peaked in late December 2022 and declined continually. A similar trend in each PLADs, urban and rural areas was observed. The number of outpatients, inpatients, severe hospitalizations, and hospital deaths have declined consistently. The virus spread decreased to a lower level in late January 2023, and the pressure on the medical system was further relieved. During the Spring Festival, the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus did not rebound significantly. The recent wave of the epidemic of COVID-19 in China has ended, and no new mutant strains of SARS-CoV-2 have been identified.

 

The analysis of the surveillance data of COVID-19 infections in Chinese mainland from Dec. 2022 to Jan. 2023. Unless otherwise specified, all data was reported by PLADs in Chinese mainland.