Health authorities have found another new Omicron subvariant, this time in China.
The subvariant was found in a patient with mild symptoms near Shanghai, the Global Times reported.
Health authorities said the new variant has evolved from the BA.1.1 version of Omicron and has not been found in other parts of China or around the world.
"This means a new variant of Omicron has been discovered locally," Xinhua said, citing health official Zhang Jun, deputy director of the Suzhou Centre for Disease Control and Prevention.
Health officials in Suzhou - just west of Shanghai - said the new variant was not found in any local or international databases, according to reports from the state press agency Xinhua on Sunday.
There are also concerns that a second subvariant may have been found in Dalian city in northern China, but it's yet to be confirmed. An infection was found there which did not match any previously found in the country, Bloomberg reported, quoting a statement made by the municipal government on its WeChat account.
Shanghai is currently in the middle of a COVID outbreak and extended its city-wide lockdown on Tuesday (NZ time) as it awaits the results of COVID tests for all of its 26 million residents.
The city reported 8581 asymptomatic COVID-19 cases and 425 symptomatic COVID cases on Sunday (local time).
It comes after the World Health Organization said it was keeping track of another new COVID variant XE.
XE is potentially 10 percent more transmissible than Omicron and was first detected in the United Kingdom on January 19.
XE is recombinant of two other strains, BA.1 - the original strain of Omicron - and BA.2, which are currently circulating in New Zealand.
