(Hong Kong) Beijing reported its first local infection of the Omicron variant, according to state media, weeks before the start of the Winter Olympics.
Posted at 12:03 a.m.
The infected person lives and works in the Haidian district, northwest of the city, and has never traveled outside of Beijing in the past two weeks. The person showed symptoms on Thursday and was tested for COVID-19 on Friday, authorities said at a Saturday news conference.
This case of Omicron comes less than three weeks before the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics on February 4 and about two weeks before the start of Lunar New Year celebrations in China.
Many Chinese cities have reported infections linked to the Omicron variant so far, including Shanghai, the western city of Xi’an, cities in the southern province of Guangdong such as Zhuhai and Zhongshan, and the city of Tianjin, which is 30 minutes from Beijing by high-speed train.
Authorities across the country have urged residents to stay in their cities for the New Year, instead of returning to their hometowns. China has adopted a strict “zero COVID” policy, with authorities locking down residential neighborhoods and even entire cities like Xi’an when a local focus of transmission has been discovered, in order to stamp out community transmission.
The residential compound and workplace of the patient infected with the Omicron variant in Beijing have been cordoned off and authorities are carrying out coronavirus tests on people linked to these two sites. Some 2,430 people had been tested by Saturday evening, according to the Global Times, a state-run newspaper.
China reported 119 new coronavirus infections on Saturday. The country has reported 104,864 infections since the start of the pandemic.