U.S. urged to share COVID information: FM spokesperson

BEIJING, Jan. 13 (Xinhua) -- Considering the new variant XBB.1.5 spreading rapidly in the United States, the U.S. should share its domestic COVID situation and virus data with the WHO and the international community in a timely, open and transparent manner, actively respond to the concerns of the international community, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said on Friday.

According to reports, a U.S. State Department spokesperson said that the United States is requiring that travelers from China take pre-departure tests because of the "spread" and "prevalence" of infections in China and "the lack of adequate and transparent epidemiological and viral genomic sequence data being reported" from China.

"Since the onset of COVID, China has been sharing information and data with the international community in a timely, open and transparent manner in accordance with the law," spokesperson Wang Wenbin told a daily news briefing when answering a relevant query.

China has also continued to share the genome sequences of the virus from COVID cases in China with the WHO and via the Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data (GISAID), which has contributed to vaccine and drug research and development, Wang added.

"According to the WHO and GISAID, the genome data of the virus provided by China share the composition with the sequences submitted by other countries which are collected from travelers arriving from China, and no new variant or mutation of known significance was noted," said Wang.

WHO Regional Director for Europe Dr. Hans Henri P. Kluge said that he shares the view of the European Centre for the Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) that the SARS-CoV-2 virus variants circulating in China are those that have already been seen in Europe and elsewhere; the situation in China is not anticipated to significantly impact the COVID-19 epidemiological situation in Europe at this time; and precautionary travel measures should be rooted in science, proportionate and non-discriminatory, Wang added.

"According to data released by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the new variant XBB.1.5 is spreading rapidly in the U.S. and has become the fastest-spreading variant in the country, causing more than 40.5% of infections," said Wang, adding that the WHO called XBB.1.5 "the most transmissible Omicron sub-variant" detected so far, which is more contagious and immune evasive.

The U.S. should share its domestic COVID situation and virus data with the WHO and the international community in a timely, open and transparent manner, actively respond to the concerns of the international community and work with the rest of the world in responding to the variant's spread, Wang added.