Health authorities in Shanghai will continue to focus on the pathogen surveillance of COVID-19 and conduct regular monitoring of the virus and its transmission patterns, said a member of Shanghai's political advisory body during the ongoing two sessions in the city.

Wu Huanyu, a member of the Shanghai Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and also deputy director of the Shanghai center for disease control and prevention, told news portal ThePaper.cn that the city will also conduct related virus prevention and control measures based on the surveillance and comprehensive analysis of the epidemic situation and trend.

Wu said that Shanghai has 19 nation-level spots focusing on pathogen surveillance of flu-like diseases. Since the outbreak of COVID-19, these stations have also been monitoring COVID-19 cases and symptoms. Presently, the BA.5.2 and BF.7 subvariants are the two dominant strains in the city.

The official said the city will continue to trace imported cases. If inbound travelers with symptoms like fever and cough go to fever clinics, the medical institution will require them to take nucleic acid test or antigen test and undergo epidemiological investigation.