China’s first Omicron case is overseas returnee in northern Tianjin city
- Patient classified as asymptomatic carrier upon arrival found to be carrying new variant while serving mandatory quarantine
- Zhejiang province remains the focus of the latest coronavirus outbreak in China, with 74 more cases on Sunday
The patient was classified as an asymptomatic carrier upon arrival in the northern city on December 9. But a full-sequence test later revealed the presence of the new variant of Sars-CoV-2, state broadcaster CCTV reported.
The patient was under mandatory quarantine for overseas arrivals when diagnosed and is being treated at a designated hospital.
The eastern coastal province of Zhejiang remains the focus of the latest coronavirus outbreak, with 74 more community cases reported across three cities.
Elsewhere, five cases were detected in the northern border city of Manzhouli in Inner Mongolia, while Xian in northwestern Shaanxi province reported one.
China to ‘wait, see and keep up zero-Covid rules’ for Omicron
Chinese officials previously admitted that there was a high chance of the new Omicron variant being introduced to the country, but were sure that China’s stringent testing regime would succeed in detecting any cases and its zero-tolerance strategy would effectively halt community transmission.