"8% of Omicron Cases in China Last Year Show Pneumonia Symptoms"

Interview with Chinese Authorities

Last year, a Chinese government official reported that 8% of people infected with the Omicron variant of the COVID-19 virus in China showed symptoms of pneumonia.

Zhao Yahui, Director of Medical Policy at the National Health Commission (NHC), said in an interview with state-run China Central Television (CCTV) on the 8th, "In clinical cases related to Omicron in China in 2022, the incidence of pneumonia was around 8% and did not even reach 10%." Director Zhao explained that although the proportion of infected individuals whose symptoms worsened to pneumonia was not high, the absolute number of people showing pneumonia symptoms was not small due to the large number of current infections in China’s population of 1.4 billion.

At the end of last month, the Chinese government changed the official name of COVID-19 from "Novel Coronavirus Pneumonia" to "Novel Coronavirus Infection." This change was made because most Omicron variant infections are limited to upper respiratory tract infections, and cases worsening to pneumonia are rare.