Tianjin confirmed its first two locally transmitted Omicron cases over the weekend. (File)
Beijing:
Cities across China are imposing tougher restrictions to try to control new outbreaks of COVID-19, with Tianjin now battling the highly contagious Omicron variant, which has been discovered present in at least two other provinces.
Tianjin officials said in a press conference on Tuesday that 49 cases have been confirmed in the latest outbreak. The city of 14 million people, about 100 kilometers (62 miles) from Beijing, is now implementing tough new control measures to prevent the coronavirus from spreading, especially into neighboring Beijing.
The outbreak in the city is linked to cases in Anyang city in central China’s Henan province, where there have been 84 confirmed infections since Saturday.
Liu Daogang, deputy director of Tianjin’s transportation department, said residents leaving Tianjin will be forced to submit a negative COVID-19 test, with restrictions enforced by 279 checkpoints around the city.
The country’s rise in Omicrons comes just weeks before the Lunar New Year, a peak travel time for millions, and cities across China are advising people to stay, especially as Beijing prepare to host the Winter Olympics early next month.
Zhang Boli, a government medical adviser, told state broadcaster CCTV on Tuesday that Omicron “cannot be ignored” even if the symptoms are not as severe as previous variants.
China has ordered the cancellation of more than two dozen scheduled flights from the US after many passengers tested positive for COVID-19 upon their arrival in China.
“Facing Omicron directly, we found that the transmission rate is actually quite fast,” Zhang Ying, an official with the Tianjin Center for Disease Control, said in an interview broadcast on state television. state figure late on Monday.
“Whether it’s in terms of viral traceability or epidemiological investigations, the Omicron variant has presented unprecedented challenges and difficulties,” she said.
Local transmission
Tianjin confirmed its first two locally transmitted Omicron cases over the weekend, and Zhang said 20 infected people were detected in the first 24 hours.
The city has imposed travel restrictions and launched a mass testing program to help prevent the spread of this variant.
China reported 192 confirmed new coronavirus cases nationwide on January 10, up from 157 cases a day earlier. In total, 110 were locally transmitted, up from 97 a day earlier.
There are 87 cases in the densely populated Henan province, according to a statement by the National Health Commission.
The capital of Zhengzhou province has closed non-essential public facilities such as beauty salons, banned eating and drinking in restaurants and stopped the operation of taxis and ride-hailing services in quarantined areas, local officials said. said in a press conference on Tuesday.
Henan’s Anyang on Monday confirmed that two of its new cases are part of the same Omicron transmission chain as Tianjin. It is not clear how many other cases in Henan are linked to Omicron.
A separate case of Omicron infection was reported on Monday in the city of Wuxi in Jiangsu province, about 120 kilometers (75 miles) from Shanghai on China’s east coast. The patient traveled from Australia to Shanghai on January 5 before moving to Wuxi.
As the Lunar New Year is approaching, other regions also have no chance.
Authorities in the southeastern city of Shenzhen closed a metro station on Tuesday and urged residents not to buy goods from high-risk countries.
The Southeast island province of Hainan, a popular tourist destination, also announced that visitors will have to present a negative COVID-19 test before being allowed in.
China also reported 50 new asymptomatic cases on Monday, classified separately from confirmed cases, up from 42 cases.
There were no new deaths, bringing the death toll to 4,636. As of January 10, mainland China has 103,968 confirmed cases.
(Except for the title, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from an aggregated feed.)
