Ahead Of Winter Olympics, Beijing Reports First Case Of Local Omicron Variant

Illustration of a queue for a COVID-19 test in China. (Wikimedia Commons/Liuxingy)

JAKARTA - China's capital Beijing on Saturday reported its first locally transmitted infection of the highly contagious variant of the Omicron virus, according to state media, just weeks before the Winter Olympics staging.

Citing Reuters January 15, State television reported on Saturday that a new infection had been identified as the Omicron strain.

Laboratory testing found a "specific mutation for the Omicron variant" in the person, Pang Xinghuo, an official at the city's disease control authority, told a news conference.

Officials have sealed off the housing complexes and workplaces of the infected, collecting 2,430 samples for testing from people linked to the two locations, a Haidian district official said.

The detection of the Beijing Omicron variant comes as cities across the country raise their alerts, ahead of the 2022 Winter Olympics which kick off on February 4.

Authorities have also warned the Omicron variant 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 later in the month.

Meanwhile, many local governments have advised residents not to leave the city unnecessarily during the holidays, while dozens of international and domestic flights have been suspended.

Apart from Beijing, China has reported locally transmitted infections of the Omicron variant in at least four other provinces and cities, 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 of Omicron cases remains unclear.

Separately, He Qinghua, an official at the National Health Commission (NHC), said in an earlier briefing on Saturday, an Omicron variant was also detected in Shanghai, without specifying the number of cases. He did not say whether the variant was found locally or among travelers from abroad.

In addition he said 14 provinces in China have found variants of Omicron, in infected individuals who came from abroad, without naming the region.

In a statement on Saturday, the NHC reported 165 confirmed cases of the new coronavirus for January 14, down from 201 the day before. Of the new infections, 104 were transmitted locally, according to a National Health Commission statement, compared with 143 the day before.

The new locally transmitted cases were in Henan, Tianjin, Guangdong, Shaanxi and Zhejiang.

To note, China also reported 25 new asymptomatic cases for January 14, down from 42 infections the day before. China classifies asymptomatic cases separately from confirmed cases.

There were no new deaths, bringing the death toll to 4,636. And as of January 14, mainland China had 104,745 confirmed cases.