COVID-19 variants becoming immune-evasive, China CDC says

The dominant COVID-19 variants in China have not shown significant changes in their pathogenicity, but novel strains are becoming increasingly immune-evasive, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention said on Thursday.

Globally, three subvariants of the JN.1 strain — KP.3.1.1, KP.3 and LB.1 — are the most prevalent. In China, major strains in circulation belong to families of XDV and JN.1, and the proportion of JN.1 infections is on the rise.

"We have not observed obvious changes in the pathogenicity of offshoots of XDV and JN.1," the China CDC said. "The majority of domestic infections with XDV and JN.1 are asymptomatic or only exhibit mild symptoms."

The China CDC added that emerging strains are evolving to become more capable of evading exiting immunity and the KP.3 strain is likely to become the dominant strain in the future.

"The prevalence of KP.3 in China is low, but its proportion is rising gradually, and the strain will likely circulate simultaneously with or compete with other major strains such as KP.2 and LB.1 in the future," it said.