Chinese province takes on twin coronavirus fronts of Omicron and Delta
- Anyang in Henan province reports two cases of the new variant among 58 in the city for Monday
- Residents confined to home and private cars ordered off the road to curb spread
In all, 58 new community cases were detected in Anyang, city authorities said on Tuesday, bringing the total number of new cases in the province to 144.
While it remained unclear whether all the new cases were the result of the Omicron variant, 56 out of 58 new Anyang cases were reported in Tangyin county, where the city identified its first case of the variant.
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Door-to-door testing carried out in China’s Henan province as Omicron spreads from Tianjin
The Beijing News quoted the student as saying he did not develop any symptoms and some of his relatives had previously tested positive for Covid-19.
On Monday evening, the more than 5 million people in the city were banned from leaving their homes unless to get a Covid-19 test. Private vehicles are also ordered off the road to curb the spread of this highly transmissible variant.
Authorities have halted the sales of train tickets from Anyang to Beijing, which will host the Winter Olympics in less than a month.
Zhang Boli, a Covid-19 specialist and president of the Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, told Science and Technology Daily on Monday that the stealthy nature of Omicron would put extra pressure on China’s prevention and control efforts.