Trends of SARS-CoV-2 Infection in Sentinel Community-Based Surveillance After the Optimization of Prevention and Control Measures — China, December 2022–January 2023

INTRODUCTION: On December 7, 2022, China implemented the “Ten New Measures” to optimize its prevention and control measures for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). To provide the latest data after the optimization, we evaluated trends of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection among the community population in China. METHODS: We utilized data from the National Sentinel Community-Based Surveillance (NSCS) system in China to assess trends of SARS-CoV-2 infection. NSCS is a national community-based surveillance cohort with 0.42 million participants from all 31 provincial-level administrative divisions (PLADs) and Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC). Participants were tested for infection twice a week (a total of eight rounds) from December 16, 2022 to January 12, 2023. SARS-CoV-2 infection was defined as testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acid or antigen. We calculated the daily average of newly positive rates of SARS-CoV-2 infection. RESULTS: In this national cohort, the daily average newly positive rate of SARS-CoV-2 infection decreased from 4.13% in Round 1 (December 16–19, 2022) to 0.69% in Round 8 (January 10–12, 2023). The epidemic peak occurred in Round 2 (December 20–22, 2022). Similar trends were observed in urban areas (decreasing from 4.65% to 0.73%), rural areas (decreasing from 2.83% to 0.57%), the eastern region (decreasing from 4.18% to 0.67%), the central region (decreasing from 5.43% to 0.61%), and the western region (decreasing from 3.01% to 0.77%). CONCLUSIONS: NSCS data showed that the peak of SARS-CoV-2 infection in China had passed. SARS-CoV-2 infection in community populations in China is currently at a low epidemic level.