China braces as Omicron variant extends its reach to Beijing and Lunar New Year looms
- A woman in the Chinese capital tests positive with just weeks to go until the Winter Olympics
- Holiday season expected to raise the risk of transmission, official says
Pang Xinghuo, deputy director of the Beijing Municipal Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, said a woman from Haidian district reported having a sore throat on Thursday and a fever a day after. She tested positive for Covid-19 on Saturday morning.
Health authorities at the district and city level reconfirmed the positive result and determined it to be the Omicron variant, Pang said.
The woman had not left the city in the previous two weeks and had not been in contact with confirmed cases. Two people living with her tested negative but some environmental samples in her home were positive.
Beijing’s health authorities carried out Covid-19 tests on her colleagues and neighbours, and imposed controls on 17 sites related to the case.
“Now Beijing’s epidemic prevention and control work faces the double risk of overseas and domestic cases,” Pang said.