The city of Zhuhai in southeastern China on Saturday suspended public bus routes after at least seven cases of Omicron, the highly contagious variant of the coronavirus, were discovered and asked residents not to leave the city.
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This coastal city of 2.4 million inhabitants, which adjoins Macao, nicknamed the Chinese Las Vegas, had already announced on Thursday the closure of hair salons, sports halls and cinemas in particular. These decisions were taken following the discovery of a mild illness and six positive but asymptomatic patients during a massive campaign of tests, following a case discovered in the neighboring city of Zhongshan.
China is fighting to try to stem small outbreaks of coronavirus, including several cases of Omicron, which have appeared in different cities and prevent their transmission to the whole country, a few weeks before the Winter Olympics in Beijing. Millions of people in the country have been confined in recent weeks, while dozens of domestic flights were canceled and entire factories closed. In Zhuhai, authorities have asked residents not to leave the city unless absolutely necessary, and upon presentation of a negative test result dating back less than 24 hours.
China, with its zero tolerance policy, which sees neighborhoods or even entire cities confined as soon as a few cases appear, has so far managed to maintain a very low rate of infection with the virus.
But the appearance of the highly contagious Omicron undermines this policy.
It first appeared in the port of Tianjin, relatively close to Beijing, before hitting the central city of Anyang.
The authorities called on the regions not yet affected to “not relax” their vigilance and to “strengthen controls”.
According to official figures, the country recorded 104 new Covid cases on Saturday.
