China tests 14 million people at Tianjin, ‘gateway to Beijing’ after omicron cases found

After a cluster of 20 people and children tested positive for COVID19, including at least two with the highly transmissible omicron strain, Tianjin, a 14-million-strong port city near China‘s capital Beijing, began mass testing on Sunday.

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According to official media, containing the omicron version in Tianjin, a “gateway” city to Beijing, will be the “first real” war against the variety on the mainland.

With less than a month until the Winter Olympics, the finding of a possible omicron cluster near Beijing, some 130 km away from Tianjin, would have sounded the alarm.

According to them, the source of the cluster epidemic is unknown, and there is a risk of a spillover.

The two cases, according to the Tianjin municipal authorities, are unrelated to the imported omicron case discovered in the city last December.

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“Among the 20 infected people, 15 are children aged between 8 and 13. The cases are concentrated in Tianjin’s Jinnan and Nankai districts,” according to the tabloid Global Times.

Students and their families associated with a daycare centre and a primary school comprise the majority of those infected.

“The Tianjin outbreak poses risks to Beijing and the upcoming Winter Olympics, because of the large number of commuters working and living in the two cities,” the newspaper stated, quoting an unnamed immunologist.

Residents in Tianjin have been encouraged to stay at home so that they can participate in the mandated nucleic acid testing.

China‘s national health commission (NHC) reported 165 confirmed coronavirus cases for January 8, up from 159 the day before.

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According to the NHC statement, 92 of the new cases were spread locally.

Following outbreaks, almost 14 million people in the cities of Xian and Yuzhou are under lockdown; Xian has recorded over 1,800 cases in a month.

Beginning Monday, the capital city of Zhengzhou, 70 kilometres (40 miles) north of Yuzhou in Henan province, will undertake mass testing and close schools.

Meanwhile, according to a Chinese health official, approximately 1.21 billion people in China have been properly vaccinated against COVID-19.

As of Friday, about 2.89 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses have been provided on the Chinese mainland, according to Mi Feng, a spokesperson for the National Health Commission.

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The representative stated that China is under growing pressure from incoming COVID-19 cases, citing a daily average of approximately 1.9 million new infections globally during the past week.

“It is imperative that we stick to the approach of forestalling inbound transmissions and preventing a domestic resurgence,” he said.

As of January 8, mainland China has 103,619 cases of COVID-19, with 4,636 deaths.