The city of Shanghai, in eastern China, identified a COVID-19 case involving a new subvariant Omicron BA.5.2.1, an official told a briefing on Sunday.
The official highlighted the complications China faces to keep up with new mutations as it pursues its "zero-COVID" policy.
The case, which was found in the financial district of Pudong on July 8, was linked to a case from overseas, according to Zhao Dandan, vice-director of the city's health commission.
"Our city has recently continued to report more locally transmitted cases (of COVID-19) and the risk of the epidemic spreading through society remains very high," Zhao said.
He indicated that residents in several major Shanghai districts would undergo two rounds of COVID tests, from July 12-14, in a bid to bring potential new outbreaks under control.
The Omicron BA.5 variant was first discovered in China on May 13 in a 37-year old male patient who had flown to Shanghai from Uganda, according to the China Center for Disease Prevention and Control.
In addition, Yuan Zhengan, a member of the city's expert advisory group on COVID prevention, noted that Variant BA.5 has been shown to have an accelerated rate of transmission and an improved immune escape capability.
He also affirmed that vaccination is still effective at preventing BA.5 from causing serious illness or death.
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