(Yicai Global) Feb. 20 -- China will not experience another huge wave of Covid-19 anytime soon despite the recent discovery of the highly contagious omicron XBB.1.5 variant, according to a medical expert.

After the coronavirus pandemic peaked in December, most people’s immune systems remain robust, and the variants found so far still belong to the omicron family, according to Peng Jie, deputy director of the infectious medicine and liver disease department at Nanfang Hospital of Southern Medical University. The human body has cross-immunity to these variants, he told Yicai Global.

On Feb. 18, China’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released the results of local cases since December. The 16,931 samples reported were all omicron variants, coexisting in 34 evolutionary branches, with one case being XBB.1.5, which has been dominant overseas.

Over time, antibody levels will decline and there may be small pandemic peaks, but the next waves will not be as virulent as previous ones, Peng noted.

Following the lifting of Covid-19 restrictions, the number of positive infections reported by provinces peaked at 6.94 million on Dec. 22, and then fluctuated and declined, falling to 10,720 cases as of Feb. 16, according to CDC data.

Separately, a report yesterday about a number of students infected with Covid-19 in a primary school in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, attracted public attention. The local education department said today that the antigen tests of 10 students in a class at the school were positive, with each infected for the first time. As a result, their class has been suspended for four days.

Editors: Dou Shicong, Peter Thomas