An Omicron case has been detected in Beijing , officials in the Chinese capital said Saturday, as the country battles multiple outbr...
An Omicron case has been detected in Beijing, officials in the Chinese capital said Saturday, as the country battles multiple outbreaks of the highly transmissible coronavirus variant ahead of the Winter Olympics.
Lab testing found 'mutations specific to the Omicron variant' in the person, Pang Xinghuo, an official at the city's disease control authority, told a news briefing.
Officials have sealed up the infected person's residential compound and workplace, and collected 2,430 samples for testing from people linked to the two locations, a Haidian district official said.
The detection of the Omicron variant Beijing came as cities across the country ratchet up viral vigilance ahead of the Winter Olympics, due to start February 4.
Authorities have also warned that Omicron adds to the increased risk of COVID-19 transmission as more people travel across the country and return to China from overseas for the Lunar New Year holiday starting at the end of the month.
A medical worker wearing a full protective outfit swabs the throat of a man during a COVID-19 test in Beijing, China on Friday. An Omicron case has been detected in Beijing, officials in the Chinese capital said Saturday as the country battles multiple outbreaks
One locally transmitted Omicron case was discovered in the capital's Haidian district, home to many tech company headquarters, city official Xinghuo said at a press conference, a rare breach of Beijing's tightly-guarded Covid-19 defences.
Authorities are testing the other occupants of the patient's residential compound and office building, and have restricted access to 17 locations linked to infected person, Pang said.
Beijing has long barred people from parts of the country that have reported cases, while requiring all arrivals to provide recent Covid-19 tests.
Residents have also been urged in recent weeks not to leave the city for the upcoming Spring Festival holiday.
On Friday, the coastal city of Zhuhai, which borders the gambling hub Macau, said Omicron had been detected in one mildly ill and six asymptomatic patients.
Zhuhai officials have asked residents to avoid leaving the city 'unless necessary', with those who are required to show negative Covid test results within the past 24 hours.
The city had launched mass testing for its population of 2.4 million people on Friday after a Covid case was detected in neighbouring Zhongshan earlier in the week.
Businesses including beauty salons, card rooms, gyms and cinemas were ordered to close on Thursday, with officials announcing the suspension of public bus routes in parts of the city.
China has kept Covid-19 cases relatively low throughout the pandemic with its zero-tolerance strategy of immediately ordering mass testing and strict lockdowns when infections are detected.
People wearing face masks line up for COVID-19 tests in Beijing, China, 14 January 2022. China is battling multiple outbreaks of the highly infectious variant ahead of the Winter Olympics
Harsher lockdowns have been imposed on China's smaller cities where millions of people have been ordered to stay home and get tested.
Meanwhile, economic hubs such as Shanghai and Beijing have locked down and tested only specific neighbourhoods in more targeted efforts.
But the fast-spreading Omicron variant has tested that strategy in recent weeks, appearing in the port city of Tianjin close to Beijing before spreading to the central city of Anyang.
National Health Commission spokesman Mi Feng told reporters on Saturday that the country faced a 'twofold challenge' from both the Delta and Omicron strains of the virus.
He warned that regions that had not yet seen outbreaks 'must not relax' their prevention measures and 'strengthen risk auditing'.
Aside from Beijing, China has reported locally transmitted infections of the Omicron variant in at least four other provinces and municipalities -- in the northern city of Tianjin, the central province of Henan, the southern province of Guangdong and the northeastern province of Liaoning.
However, the total number Omicron cases remains unclear.
An armed policemen wears a protective mask and marches past a 17 meter-high flower bed with the theme of 'Wonderful Winter Olympics' at Tiananmen square on January 15, 2022 in Beijing, China. The Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics are set to open February 4
He Qinghua, an official at the National Health Commission (NHC), said in a briefing earlier on Saturday that the Omicron variant was also detected in Shanghai, without specifying the case count.
He did not say whether the variant had been found locally or among travellers from overseas.
He said 14 provincial areas in China had found the Omicron variant in infected individuals arriving from overseas, without naming the regions.
In a statement on Saturday, the NHC reported 165 new confirmed coronavirus cases for Jan. 14, down from 201 a day earlier.
Of the new infections, 104 were locally transmitted, according to a statement by the National Health Commission, compared with 143 a day earlier.
The new locally transmitted cases were in Henan, Tianjin, Guangdong, Shaanxi and Zhejiang.
China also reported 25 new asymptomatic cases for Jan. 14, down from 42 infections a day earlier. China classifies asymptomatic cases separately from confirmed cases.
There were no new deaths, leaving the death toll at 4,636.
As of January 14, mainland China had 104,745 confirmed cases.
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