In China, spoke about the features of the second outbreak of coronavirus in the country

Not so long ago, it was reported that in the north-east of China – a new outbreak of coronavirus infection SARS-CoV-2, due to which more than 108 million people were quarantined. Now Chinese doctors say that the infection manifests itself in a slightly different way compared to the initial outbreak in Wuhan.

Patients in the northern provinces of Jilin and Heilongjiang seem to have been transmitting the virus for a longer period, and it takes longer to get a negative test result, said Qiu Haibo, one of China’s leading resuscitation doctors.

According to him, patients in the north-east of the country show symptoms one to two weeks later than patients in Wuhan, and because of this it is more difficult for the authorities to detect cases before they spread. Now in three cities 46 cases are recorded (10% in critical condition, 26 people are hospitalized).

The differences mentioned may be due to the fact that Chinese doctors can observe patients more carefully and at an earlier stage than in Wuhan. After all, when there was the first outbreak of coronavirus, the local healthcare system was so overloaded that only the most serious cases were treated in Wuhan. In addition, the northeast region is much smaller than Hubei.

Researchers around the world are trying to figure out if the coronavirus can mutate enough to become more infectious. However, early studies suggesting such a possibility have been criticized.

“In theory, some changes in the genome can lead to changes in the structure of the virus or its behavior,” said Keiji Fukuda, director and clinical professor at the University of Hong Kong’s School of Public Health. “However, many mutations do not lead to any noticeable changes.”

It is likely that observations in China have no correlation with mutation. To conclude that the virus mutates, “very clear evidence,” he added.

Another difference in the course of the virus in the northeastern region is that the local patients seem to be mainly affected by the lungs, while patients in Wuhan suffered from multiple organ damage to the heart, kidneys and intestines.

Chinese officials believe that the new cluster arose due to contact with infected people arriving from Russia. Genetic sequencing has shown a match between the “northeast” and “Russian” strains, Qiu said.