1st Chinese city with Omicron cases declares victory against outbreak

Beijing, Jan 26 (EFE).- The northeastern Chinese city of Tianjin has declared itself “victorious” against the Omicron outbreak it has been battling since the beginning of January, the official Global Times newspaper reported Wednesday.

On Jan. 8, the city was the first place in China to announce community infections in an outbreak that in the following days spread to the central province of Henan.

The outbreak emerged barely 130 kilometers from Beijing, which is about to host the Winter Olympics.

However, Zhang Ying, deputy head of Tianjin Center for Disease Control and Prevention told state broadcaster CCTV on Tuesday that all the new cases have been in specialized quarantine centers for more than four days and therefore pose no risk of contagion in society.

Zhang declared that “it is absolutely certain that Tianjin has won a complete victory over the outbreak.”

In line with China’s zero-Covid policy, the city applied the usual measures: movement restrictions and PCR test campaigns for its 14 million inhabitants.

At least four rounds of testing have been carried out on the entire population.

However, Tianjin did not resort to a general lockdown like the one that was imposed in Xi’an last month, and which ended Monday.

According to figures from the authorities, there are 252 active cases in Tianjin, which during this outbreak has registered just over 300 positives and no deaths.

Zhang said that it would be unwise to define Omicron as a “supersized influenza,” as more studies and tests are still needed.

The proportion of cases infected by Omicron who have suffered from pneumonia is much higher than among those infected by influenza, she added.

According to the accounts of the China Health Commission, since the start of the pandemic, 105,749 people have been infected and 4,636 have died. EFE

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