New variants of coronavirus will continue to emerge, warns China's 'bat woman'

New variants of coronavirus will continue to emerge, said China's 'bat woman'. Shi Zhengli, who heads the Wuhan lab. The Chinese virologist said, "We shouldn't panic, but we need to prepare to co-exist with the virus in the long term." 

The coronavirus, which first emerged in China in December 2019, has "become too big" which allowed it to "mutate and select," Zhengli said. She added that COVID-19 vaccines remain imperative as shots can prevent getting the disease, however, it brings down the number of critically ill cases. 

Zhengli's statement came as several nations, including the US and China, are battling the outbreak of deadly and highly transmissible Delta COVID variant, which was first detected in India last year and had also driven the lethal second wave in the country. 

Someone infected with Delta variant carries 1,260 times more virus in their noses compared to the original strain of the coronavirus, Chinese researchers have concluded as a virologist in San Diego, Shane Crotty of La Jolla Institute for Immunology said that the Delta's "superpower" is its transmissibility.

China is battling the worst outbreak of coronavirus in recent times driven by the Delta variant and the Xi Jinping-led nation has mobilised 28,000 health workers at thousands of testing sites across cities. Authorities have put several cities under lockdown in China and are doing mass testing amid a surge of COVID cases. The Delta variant is spreading rapidly in China in recent weeks with Nanjing, where an outbreak was reported among migrant workers, becoming the epicentre of the virus.

The White House's chief medical adviser, Dr Anthony Fauci warned that the US, which is witnessing high hospitalisation rates due to Delta variant, will be trouble unless more Americans get vaccinated. He said that a large pool of unvaccinated people give the virus the opportunity to spread more and mutate into new variants.

(With Inputs from Agencies)