Omicron: Chinese border town locked down after 1 case sparks tests uncovering 98 infections

Name: How does the Beijing Winter Olympic ‘closed loop’ bubble work?
Uploaded: 2022-02-07T07:11:16.000Z
Duration: 3 min 40 s
Description: How does the Beijing Winter Olympic ‘closed loop’ bubble work?

Situation in city of Baise described as ‘very serious’, residents undergo mass testing following the discovery of a positive case in a returned resident

Debao county government issues stern statements to residents and businesses, warning of consequences for not adhering to test or lockdown rules

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Baise city in Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region is undergoing strict pandemic control measures after testing at the weekend uncovered dozens of Covid19 cases. Photo: Xinhua

Zhuang Pinghui

Published: 3:11pm, 7 Feb 2022Updated: 6:03pm, 7 Feb 2022

A Chinese city on the border with Vietnam has put 3.6 million residents under strict lockdown after finding dozens of infections during mass testing.

Baise, in the southern region of Guangxi, reported one Covid-19 infection on Saturday in a resident who had recently returned to the city. Mass testing was then conducted on more than 207,000 residents in Debao county, where the Covid-positive resident lives.

Ninety-eight people were found to be positive and the results of a further 87 had to be re-examined, the municipal government said on Sunday. The city reported 37 confirmed cases – cases in which the infected patient has symptoms – on Sunday.

Huang Zhengyong, deputy director of Guangxi Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, said all the cases were in the same transmission chain and the first two cases were confirmed infected with the Omicron variant of the coronavirus.

“The genome sequencing comparison is still ongoing but the index case is very likely to have been infected outside Guangxi,” Huang said. “The first case attended numerous gatherings and those present at the meals accounted for half of the current infections. The virus was then transmitted further in families and communities.”

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How does the Beijing Winter Olympic ‘closed loop’ bubble work?

Across China, 45 local Covid-19 cases were reported on Sunday, a rise from the low of nine cases last week during the Lunar New Year holiday.