Several countries and regions including Israel, South Africa and China's Hong Kong have identified cases of what some Western media called the "worst" or "horrific" new variant of COVID-19, known as B.1.1.529, which carried an unusually large number of mutations and raised public concerns on its transmission capacity and possible ability to escape vaccine-induced immunity. But Chinese experts believe there is no need to panic as the large number of mutations does not necessarily indicate...

Several countries and regions including Israel, South Africa and China's Hong Kong have identified cases of what some Western media called the "worst" or "horrific" new variant of COVID-19, known as B.1.1.529, which carried an unusually large number of mutations and raised public concerns on its transmission capacity and possible ability to escape vaccine-induced immunity. But Chinese experts believe there is no need to panic as the large number of mutations does not necessarily indicate...