BA.5 becoming dominant Omicron subvariant across the world: health official

BEIJING -- The Omicron subvariant BA.5 is becoming the dominant strain of COVID-19 across the world and is causing cluster infections in China, a Chinese health official told a press conference on Friday.

Pointing out the seriousness and complexity of the epidemic prevention and control situation, Mi Feng, spokesperson for the National Health Commission, urged adherence to the dynamic zero-COVID policy and called for efforts to guard against both inbound cases and domestic resurgence.

In areas affected by new outbreaks, transmission should be contained in a decisive manner with early detection and swift and science-based response measures, Mi said.

The tendency of either letting the guard down or imposing unnecessary restrictions should be avoided in epidemic prevention, he added.