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Coronavirus pandemic
ChinaScience

Omicron has spread from Tianjin to Henan weeks before Winter Olympics, Lunar New Year

  • Two cases of the highly infectious Covid-19 strain found in city of Anyang on Sunday, traced to a student who travelled there nearly two weeks ago
  • Tianjin has meanwhile imposed travel restrictions and mass testing, with Games and Lunar New Year holiday fast approaching

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A woman registers for a Covid-19 test in Tianjin on Sunday, as the northern city began mass testing its 14 million residents. Photo: Xinhua
Josephine Ma,Dylan DuanandAlyssa Chen

The Omicron outbreak in the northern Chinese port city of Tianjin spread to central Henan nearly two weeks ago but was only discovered by health officials on Sunday.

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China is now trying to contain clusters of the highly infectious new Covid-19 strain as well as the Delta variant in multiple cities and provinces, with the Lunar New Year holiday and Beijing Winter Olympics just weeks away.

In Henan – where several places are battling Delta outbreaks – Anyang city authorities on Monday said two Omicron infections were found on Sunday and genome sequencing showed their origin was the same as cases identified in the Jinnan district of Tianjin.

The Anyang cases were detected during compulsory mass screening that is being carried out in the city as officials try to contain a Delta outbreak. They were traced to a university student infected with Omicron who returned to Anyang from Tianjin – a distance of about 500km (310 miles) – on December 28, but the case was only found on Saturday, the city authorities said.

China’s first Omicron case was discovered in Tianjin last month – a traveller who had returned from overseas. There were 21 new local symptomatic Covid-19 infections and two asymptomatic cases reported in Tianjin on Sunday, the National Health Commission said on Monday, without confirming the strain. At least two local Omicron cases were detected in the city on Saturday.

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2 Omicron cases spark citywide testing in Chinese city of Tianjin near Beijing

2 Omicron cases spark citywide testing in Chinese city of Tianjin near Beijing

Tianjin authorities have responded by imposing travel curbs and rolling out compulsory mass testing for the city’s 14 million residents, among other measures.

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