6000 People In Quarantine, 1 Citywide Tests Per Day - COVID Hits

Source: OT-Team(S,J), Global times,

Zhuhai, in south Chinas Guangdong Province, reported seven confirmed local Omicron cases on Friday, making it the second city in the mainland to be hit by the Omicron variant after Tianjin.

One citywide testing per day, for 3 consecutive days

Since the 16th, Zhuhai has carried out one round of citywide nucleic acid testing for all residents every day for three consecutive days. Those who have not completed three nucleic acid testings will get "yellow health code" automatically.

On the 16th, 2.747 million of residents were samples, and all the test results were negative.

As of 15:00 on January 16, Zhuhai has investigated 2,650 close contacts and 4,007 indirect-close contacts, all of which have been under centralized quarantine and medical observation.

Travelling restriction implemented

Zhuhai has canceled all flights between Beijing,Xian and Tianjin after the outbreak. All passengers departing from Zhuhai Airport must provide nucleic acid testing certificates within 24 hours with negative results before departure. As of the 16th, flights at Zhuhai Airport have decreased by 30% compared with the 12th.

All tourist attractions in Zhuhai have been temporarily closed, and several nearby cities have suspended expressway or waterway routes to Zhuhai.

Zhuhai has requested all residents to suspend unnecessary travelling out of the city. Nucleic acid testing within 24 hours with negative results and green health codes will be asked for those who have to leave.

Local outbreak may be related with imported cargo

On January 17, Zhuhai announced that according to the epidemiological investigations, all local Omicron cases are currently in the same transmission chain. The gene sequencing is 100% homologous to the imported cases from other provinces.

The first confirmed case in Zhuhai, was known as someone who worked as a customer service staff of an enterprise and often came into contact with imported goods. According to on-site epidemiological investigations and laboratory tests, experts concluded that the outbreak could possibly be due to exposure to contaminated imported items. Further investigation is still in progress.