The world should "quiet" its worries about the possibility of sub-variants of the new coronavirus circulating in China, Reuters reported, citing Chinese scientist George Gao.

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An article by Gao and his colleagues, published in the medical journal The Lancet, states that in the weeks following the outbreak of the new wave of COVID-19 in China, which occurred after the restrictions of the "zero COVID" policy were lifted, no new sub-variants of the coronavirus have emerged.

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The world should fully allay fears that there are new or special variants circulating in China, Gao, who is a professor at the Institute of Microbiology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and former head of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, told Reuters.

The subvariants causing the infections in China now are the same Omicron varieties found elsewhere in the world -- BA.5.2 and BF.7, he told Reuters by email.

His research analyzed 413 cases of COVID-19 infections in Beijing for the period November 14 - December 20, 2022, BTA adds.

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