China Covid surge | U.S. requires tests | XBB becoming dominant

VIEW IN BROWSER | SUBSCRIBE Fri, Dec 30, 2022 EDITOR'S NOTE Think a friend or colleague should be getting this newsletter? Share this link with them to sign up.   The Biden administration will require travelers from China to test negative for Covid before departing for the U.S., as Covid cases surge in the world's most populous country and health officials complain about a lack of transparency from Beijing.    The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday said the testing requirements will go into effect on Jan. 5. U.S. health officials say they are worried that a new variant could emerge in China as the virus spreads widely there.    The World Health Organization has called for Beijing to share more information about what's happening on the ground. U.S. health officials say they have very limited information about infections, hospitalizations, deaths in China and what variants are circulating there.   In the U.S., meanwhile, the XBB.1.5 variant is rapidly becoming dominant in the midst of the holiday travel season. Scientists have warned that the variant is highly immune evasive and could lead to a surge of breakthrough infections and re-infections. Feel free to send any tips, suggestions, story ideas and data to me at spencer.kimball@nbcuni.com. Spencer Kimball | Health Reporter @spencekimball Spencer Kimball | Health Reporter @spencekimball U.S. will require airline passengers traveling from China to test negative for Covid The Biden administration will require airline passengers traveling from China to test negative for Covid before entering the U.S. as concern grows that widespread transmission of the virus in the world's most populous country could result in new variants.   All airline passengers 2 years and older originating from China, Hong Kong or Macau will be required to get tested for Covid-19 no more than two days before their flight to the U.S. and show a negative result to the airline upon departure, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced on Wednesday.   The requirements, which apply regardless of nationality and vaccination status, start Jan. 5. Travelers can get a PCR test or a rapid self test that is administered and monitored by a telehealth service. The rapid test must be authorized by the Food and Drug Administration or the relevant national authority. - Spencer Kimball   U.S. and global health officials are worried about lack of transparency from China on Covid outbreak U.S. and global health leaders say Beijing is not sharing enough information about the spread of Covid-19 in China, leaving the international community in the dark about the scale and severity of the current wave of infection in the world's most populous country.   The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in a statement Wednesday, said the lack of transparency from China could delay the identification of new Covid variants that pose a threat to public health. China is sharing very few genomic sequences used to identify such variants, according to the CDC. - Spencer Kimball Chinese provinces hit hard by Covid are seeing a strain on critical care, health officials say   BEIJING — Some Chinese provinces' intensive care beds and resources are nearing capacity as Covid-19 infections soar, national health authorities said Tuesday.    "In provinces currently experiencing high demand for intensive care, they are nearing the critical threshold of available ICU beds and resources," Jiao Yahui, director of the medical affairs department at China's National Health Commission, said during a press conference. That's according to a CNBC translation of the Mandarin remarks. - Evelyn Cheng XBB.1.5 variant is quickly becoming dominant in U.S. as it doubles weekly The Covid Omicron XBB.1.5 variant is rapidly becoming dominant in the U.S. because it is highly immune evasive and appears more effective at binding to cells than related subvariants, scientists say.   XBB.1.5 now represents about 41% of new cases nationwide in the U.S., nearly doubling in prevalence over the past week, according to the data published Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The subvariant more than doubled as a share of cases every week through Dec. 24. In the past week, it nearly doubled from 21.7% prevalence. - Spencer Kimball CONTRIBUTORS Bertha Coombs @berthacoombs Meg Tirrell @megtirrell Bertha Coombs @berthacoombs Meg Tirrell @megtirrell Unsubscribe Manage Newsletters Terms of Service Join the CNBC Panel   Digital Products Feedback Privacy Policy CNBC Events   © 2022 CNBC LLC. All rights reserved. A property of NBCUniversal. 900 Sylvan Avenue, Englewood Cliffs, NJ 07632 Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes. Global Business and Financial News, Stock Quotes and Market Data and Analysis. Data also provided by THOMSON REUTERS