Recently, the Second Hospital of Lanzhou University urgently dispatched nucleic acid testing personnel and stationed in the dura mater laboratory to start nucleic acid testing support work. Photo courtesy of the Second Hospital of Lanzhou University

On the afternoon of the 22nd, the Gansu Province New Coronary Pneumonia Epidemic Prevention and Control (33rd) press conference disclosed that monitoring data showed that as of now, the current round of the epidemic in Gansu Province has spread for at least 5 generations. With the strengthening of prevention and control measures, the spread of the epidemic has slowed down. The intergenerational interval of transmission has been delayed from 1.93 days in the early stage of the epidemic to 2.3 days; the transmission power (effective reproduction number) has dropped from 4.4 in the early stage of the epidemic to 1.76. But it is still higher than the transmission power and speed of the epidemic in Gansu Province in March this year.

As of 24:00 on July 21, 40,038 close contacts and 73,374 close contacts had been investigated and controlled in the areas where the epidemic occurred in Gansu Province; as of 12:00 on July 22, there were 282 high-risk areas in Gansu Province, and some There are 307 medium-risk areas.

At the press conference, Wang Xuxia, chief physician of the Gansu Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention, answered questions related to the BA.

Wang Xuxia said that the virus strain that caused this round of epidemic is the Omicron variant BA.2.38, which belongs to the BA.2 sub-branch and evolved from BA.2. It has strong transmission power and fast transmission speed, but it is still a variant of Omicron, and the existing prevention and control measures can still effectively deal with it.

At present, Gansu Province has opened a total of 16 designated hospitals, sub-designated hospitals and 1 makeshift hospital to carry out patient treatment and isolation medical observation of asymptomatic infected persons. As of 24:00 on July 21, a total of 17 patients in Gansu Province have been cured and discharged from the epidemic, and 45 asymptomatic patients have been released from isolation and medical observation.

From 0-12 on July 22, Gansu Province added 17 new local confirmed cases and 100 new local asymptomatic infections. As of 24:00 on July 21, a total of 377 local confirmed cases have been reported in Gansu Province, involving 8 cities and prefectures including Lanzhou, Gannan, Wuwei, and Dingxi; a total of 1,834 local asymptomatic infections have been reported, involving Zhangye, Jiuquan, etc. 10 cities and states. (Reporter Li Yalong)