Beijing is intensifying COVID-19 restrictions after detecting new Omicron casein just two weeks before the Beijing Olympics

• Beijing is tightening its COVID-19 restrictions after one case of the Omicron COVID-19 was reported.

• All inbound travelers are required to take a COVID-19 test within 72 hours of arrival in the city.

China is just two weeks from the 2022 Winter Olympics opening ceremony, but Beijing is tightening COVID-19 controls after one Omicron case was detected there.

While the Chinese capital has not gone into full lockdown mode, all inbound travelers are now required to get an additional COVID-19 test within 72 hours of arriving in the city, per government newspaper Beijing Daily.

Related: Omicron cases may start dropping off dramatically in some countries as it’s running out of people to infect

Current COVID-19 protocols already mandate that travelers to the city test negative for COVID-19 within 48 hours of their inbound journey, per Reuters.

Beijing reported its single Omicron case on Saturday. According to Reuters, the infected person’s residential compound and workplace are under lockdown.

Beijing detected the Omicron infection less than a week after Tianjin, a neighboring northern city, detected 97 COVID-19 cases in the city and subjected its entire population of 14 million people to compulsory COVID-19 testing.

China’s Covid-zero pandemic response involves swiftly locking down entire cities after COVID-19 infections are detected.

As of January 11, around 20 million across China were under COVID-19 lockdown protocols in China. The city of Xi’an, where 13 million people live, was put under lockdown on December 23 after recording around 1,000 COVID-19 cases between December 9 and December 23. Yuzhou, a central Chinese city home to 1.2 million people, was put under lockdown in January after authorities detected three asymptomatic cases. And Anyang, a city of 5.5 million residents, also faced restrictions after two reported cases of the Omicron variant.

The Beijing Olympics kick off on February 4, 2022. The country plans to implement a “closed-loop” bubble, where athletes, officials, broadcasters, and journalists may move only within designated locales. The Associated Press reported that athletes would be required to take daily COVID-19 tests, and spectators won’t be allowed to chant when cheering on the athletes and will be restricted to clapping.

@ Insider

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Source: Vietnam Insider