China has confirmed its first case of the Omicron coronavirus variant.
Gatekeepers News reports that authorities in the northern city of Tianjin have confirmed the case of the fast-spreading Omicron COVID-19 variant in an individual who entered the country from an undisclosed overseas location.
According to the Tianjin Daily newspaper, the asymptomatic patient tested positive for COVID-19 on Thursday before further tests ‘confirmed the detection of the Omicron variant’.
The person is currently being treated in isolation at the hospital.
It comes as the state suspended business operations, cut flights, cancelled events, and plunging hundreds of thousands of people in major Chinese manufacturing province Zhejiang into quarantine amid a recent outbreak of COVID.
According to the Province’s officials, 74 locally transmitted cases with confirmed symptoms were reported on Dec. 12, almost double the previous day’s 38 cases, lifting to 173 the total since the province started to report cases for the latest outbreak.
Meanwhile, the world’s most populous nation is on high alert for potential outbreaks as it prepares to host the Beijing Winter Olympics in February.
Disease control agencies affiliated with the State Council, and China’s cabinet have ordered stronger virus protocols in port cities like Tianjin, which lies around 87 miles from the capital, to prevent the transmission of Omicron.
On Sunday, the World Health Organisation said the Omicron appears to spread faster than the Delta variant, making vaccines less effective but causing less severe symptoms while stressing that the data remains patchy.
