China's Tianjin city orders testing of all 14 million residents, Winter Olympics host Beijing on high alert

China's northern city of Tianjin ordered a second round of COVID-19 testing of all 14 million residents on January 12, 2022 after discovering 97 cases of omicron variant during initial screenings that began on January 9th. The discovery hence has put neighbouring city Beijing on high alert. 

The residents will have to stay where they are till their test results are recieved.The authorities have so far carried out almost 12 million tests so far and around 7.8 million samples have returned. 

Tianjin city is just one hour away from Beijing, which is scheduled to host the Winter Olympics from February 4, 2022. The city is now implementing tougher controls to stop Covid-19 infection from spreading to Beijing. The infections were first reported on January 8th. 

Omicron cases in China

• China has so far reported only a handful of cases of the Omicron variant of Covid-19. However, all those who have tested positive in the initial round of testing in Tianjin city were found to have Omicron variant. 

• Most cases seem to be asymptomatic, making it more difficult to detect who is infected and they would be spreading the infection to other people unknowingly. 

• The outbreak in Tianjin has been linked to the cases in the Anyang city in the central Chinese province of Henan, which is more than 300 miles from Tianjin.

• China has so far announced the detection of 166 new Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours, which includes 118 in Henan province, 8 in Xi’an city and 33 in Tianjin city. Xi’an city has been under lockdown since December 23rd.

• As per Chinese authorities, COVID-19 has spread to three cities in China's Henan province including Yuzhou, Anyang and the provincial capital Zhengzhou. 

• This has prompted travel bans and various levels of lockdown in the cities. China has managed to largely contain major outbreaks by placing millions under lockdown in other cities to maintain China's strict zero-case policy. 

• This is however having a major impact on the local economy. The residents in Xi'an have complained about their inability to source food and other daily necessities.

Hong Kong tightens restrictions

The semi-autonomous Chinese city, Hong Kong has also tightened restrictions after discovering that the Omicron variant has spread to people beyond those arriving from other countries. The city also closed kindergartens and primary schools after discovering infections among students and banned flights from the United States and 7 other countries. The city has also held 2,500 passengers on a cruise ship for COVID-19 testing.