As if perfectly timed for the wind-down of COVID-19, a new string of letters and numbers has emerged.

“China reports human case of H10N3 bird flu,” read the AP headline, posted about an hour ago, “a possible first.

Dateline Beijing: “A man in eastern China has contracted what might be the world’s first human case of the H10N3 strain of bird flu ….

The 41-year-old man in Jiangsu province, northwest of Shanghai, was hospitalized April 28 and is in stable condition, the National Health Commission said on its website.

No human case of H10N3 has been reported elsewhere, the commission said.

‘This infection is an accidental cross-species transmission,’ its statement said. ‘The risk of large-scale transmission is low’ ….