Neutralization of SARS-CoV-2 BQ.1.1, CH.1.1, and XBB.1.5 by breakthrough infection sera from previous and recent waves in China
Xun Wang, Shuai Jiang, Shujun Jiang, Xiangnan Li, Jingwen Ai, Ke Lin, Shiyun Lv, Shixuan Zhang, Minghui Li, Jixi Li, Lili Dai, Zixin Hu, Wenhong Zhang, Yanliang Zhang, Pengfei Wang
Abstract
Since its emergence in late 2021, the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant has continued to evolve and given rise to numerous subvariants. Due to the high transmissibility and immune escape properties, Omicron BA.2 caused a local outbreak in Shanghai since March 2022 and resulted in over 0.6 million laboratory-confirmed infections 1 , 2 . Since the “zero-Covid” policy was lifted in December 2022, China has experienced a surge in COVID-19 infections nationwide. However, the variant composition was much simpler in China, with only two main subvariants, BA.5 and BF.7, during this recent COVID-19 infection wave according to the sequences deposited in the GISAID database (Supplementary Fig. S1a ).