China's relatively-strong herd immunity at present will prevent a new wave of COVID-19 infections over the short term, according to medical experts as the first XBB.1.5 case was reported in the Chinese mainland, raising public concerns over a possible new outbreak.
The concerns resulted from a report released by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Wednesday, which confirmed a case infected by the new XBB.1.5 variant was detected for the first time on the Chinese mainland since December, 2022.
Hashtags relating to XBB.1.5 have quickly began trending on China's Twitter-like Sina Weibo on Friday. Some netizens questioned whether the new variant will trigger another wave of infections as some people seemed to have contracted the virus for a second time.
