(Yicai) May 14 -- China had identified 25 KP.2-sequenced cases in the country as of May 12, as the strain spreads quickly in other nations including India and the US, according to the latest data.

The KP.2 variant was first detected in China on March 11 in a patient in Guangdong, according to the National Bureau of Disease Control and Prevention. But the proportion of cases remains very low at between 0.05 percent and 0.3 percent. The main strains circulating in China at the moment are JN.1, JN.1.16 and JN.1.4.

Cases of KP.2 have been rising rapidly around the world since February, the bureau said. It accounted for 0.16 percent of global infections in January and this increased to 14 percent in early May. But recently, some countries have seen a big jump in KP.2 accounting for between 10 percent to 30 percent of cases.

It is unlikely that the new strain will set off another wave of the pandemic in China, experts from the National Bureau of Disease Control and Prevention said. This is because the proportion of KP.2 infections is extremely low and JN.1 infections are also at a low level.

Editor: Kim Taylor