Since lifting their zero covid policy, China has seen a rapid rise in their number of covid cases. Is this causing concerns here in the United States?
Brenton Nesemeier is director of field services for North Dakota Health and Human services.
"The concern in the United States would be, many of our citizens have had either natural infection or are vaccinated, but the concern would be, due to the rapid rise in cases and spreading of covid in China, what if a new variant emerges. That would be our main concern, we don't know what level of sequencing they're doing to determine what variant or what strain of covid is actually spreading, and that would be our main concern right now.
Nesemeier says if citizens are concerned, they can stay up to date on their covid boosters and also protect themselves against other respiratory illnesses like the flu.
"The United States has long since lifted their restrictions, and we also saw an increase of cases when we lifted our restrictions, so it could just be the close nature of living quarters and now, individuals who are living in China can move more freely about and can thereby have more exposure opportunity."