The snap lockdown meant the building in the west of the city was sealed off without advance warning, with everybody inside unable to leave and subject to compulsory Covid testing. The decision to lock the office down came after an employee tested positive for Omicron on Saturday — the city’s first recorded case of the highly transmissible variant.
For the past week, officials in Beijing had been on high alert as an Omicron outbreak spread in Tianjin, a major port city just 30 minutes away by high-speed rail. The cluster had already spread to two other cities hundreds of miles away.
According to detailed surveillance data collected by officials, the Beijing woman infected with Omicron had not come into contact with a confirmed case and hadn’t left the capital in the past 14 days, raising fears the variant may already be spreading in the community.
Unlike most of the world, China is pursuing a zero-Covid strategy that relies on stringent restrictions including mass testing, lockdowns and long quarantine for international arrivals.
The risk of the variant spreading among the local Beijing population outside its so-called Olympic bubble — intended to keep participants separate from the wider public — comes as authorities warned of the “double pressure of domestic and imported cases.”
After the woman’s case was confirmed, authorities sprang into action, imposing uncompromising snap lockdowns — trapping people in places such as office blocks — and extensive contact tracing and testing in high-risk areas.
The residential compound where the confirmed case lives is just 15 minutes’ drive from Olympic Park. The entire community has since been sealed off while people get tested and authorities conduct environmental sampling. CNN staff who drove past the complex over the…
Source : cnn
