China Reports New Omicron Subtype Near Shanghai as City Locks Down Residents

Workers and volunteers look on in a compound where residents are tested for the Covid-19 coronavirus during the second stage of a pandemic lockdown in Jing'an district in Shanghai on April 4, 2022. Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images

A new subtype of the highly transmissible Omicron variant has been found near Shanghai, where residents are currently under a lockdown.

The new iteration of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus was reported by municipal authorities in Suzhou, a city that borders Shanghai, on April 2. The strain was isolated from a local infected patient with the surname Yang on March 28.