China’s Health Authorities Confirm JN.1 as the Dominant COVID-19 Strain

Chinese health authorities have said that JN.1 has become the main strain causing COVID-19 infections in China amid an ongoing pneumonia outbreak sweeping across the country since last September.

The National Health Commission said at a press briefing on Feb. 4 that monitoring data showed a slight increase in COVID-19 cases, with the Omicron JN.1 mutant strain now being the dominant epidemic strain in the country.

With the increase in inter-regional traveling and large gatherings around the Chinese New Year that falls on Feb. 10, the spread of COVID-19 is expected to increase.

Health authorities also said acute respiratory disease has declined in the past three weeks. Among them, influenza showed a downward trend, but it is still the main pathogen of current respiratory disease infections, and other respiratory diseases are at a lower level.

But health officials anticipate that for most of February going forward will see multiple respiratory diseases spreading simultaneously.

Since the ruling Chinse Communist Party (CCP) concealed the real data and true scale of the COVID-19 outbreak since late 2019, it is difficult for the outside world to know the truth about the ongoing pneumonia outbreak that has surged since last September, which has been suspected for another wave of COVID-19 caused by a mutated viral strain.

Infections in Jiangsu Province

Doctor Shui, an attending physician at the Department of Comprehensive Internal Medicine at Jiaoxi Health Center in Jiaozhou City, posted a video on Feb. 3 on his social media account saying that a new wave of COVID-19 infections may have started in January.

In another video he posted on Feb. 3, Dr. Shui said that the number of cases in Jiangsu surged to 5,000 in one day. “The virus becomes more rampant in winter, many children are unfortunately infected, and the pediatric hospitals are overcrowded.”

Mr. Wang, a villager in Huai’an in Jiangsu Province, told The Epoch Times that he lives in a very remote village where there are many people infected with the virus, and his two sisters are receiving IV treatment for it.

A distant relative of his was usually in good health, but after recently being infected, he was placed on oxygen therapy, and when he went off the oxygen, he died.

Pulmonary Nodules

An insider in Jilin told The Epoch Times that comparing the workplace physical examination data before and after the COVID-19 pandemic, it was found that 95 percent of people have developed pulmonary nodules (abnormal growths in the lung) since COVID-19 broke out three years ago.

Sun Cheng (pseudonym) from Jilin City in Jilin Province told The Epoch Times, “There have been a lot of nodules cases found during the physical examination at the work unit, such as lymph node nodules, lung nodules, and thyroid nodules.

“The work unit conducts physical examinations every year. There weren’t that many. But people with nodules are particularly common now. At least 95 percent of people are diagnosed with pulmonary nodules. This data is very accurate.”

Chinese health experts estimated that 90 percent of the Chinese people had been infected with COVID-19 over the past three years, while the CCP mandated that the population be inoculated with locally-made COVID-19 vaccines.

Judging by the physical examination reports, Mr. Sun said, “Comparing the physical examination data before 2019 with the physical examination data after people inoculated with COVID-19 vaccines, it shows that before 2019, people basically did not have nodules; now it is very common to have nodules.”

Prof. Mingqiang Kang, president of Putian University Affiliated Hospital and director of the Second Thoracic Surgery Department of Fujian Medical University Affiliated Union Hospital, told mainland Chinese media Fujian Health News that due to the particularity of COVID-19, about a quarter of patients reported that pulmonary nodules were found in their chest CT examination after they infected with COVID-19 and even after they recovered from COVID-19.

Dr. Yan Xiaoliang, head of the thoracic surgery medical group of the First Hospital of Shanxi Medical University, posted a video on social media on Feb. 6, saying that many people found nodules in the lungs during physical examinations, and some were “pure ground glass” pulmonary nodules, some are “mixed-density ground-glass” nodules, and some are solid nodules. He warned that relevant studies have found that the malignant probability (lung cancer rate) of mixed-density ground-glass pulmonary nodules is approximately 63 percent. If they are all malignant nodules, solid nodules have the worst prognosis.

Mr. Sun added that he was also infected and recently discharged from hospital. He said that many adults and children were visiting the hospital’s fever clinic, and there were also many people suffering from white lung symptoms, which is typical in severe COVID-19 infections.

Mr. Ma from Heilongjiang Province in northeast China told The Epoch Times that he is in his 50s and he and his whole family have been infected with the virus recently, and he has heard that many people have fevers and colds.

Mr. Ma also mentioned that many people have died suddenly, including his two neighbors in their 50s.

Fang Xiao, Xiong Bin, and Xia Song contributed to this report.