Beijing confirms its first Omicron infection

• Beijing has confirmed its first locally transmitted Omicron infection, according to state media.

• The report comes weeks before the Winter Olympic Games opening ceremony on February 4 and two weeks before the Lunar New Year celebrations this year.

• The person infected with the Omicron variant works and lives in the northwestern district of Haidian with no former travel history outside Beijing.

• The city of Xi’an has initiated the process of lifting restrictions after three weeks of lockdown as the authorities battled to ward off the rising infections of the virus.

• The Chinese cities like Zhuhai, Zhongshan and in the southern Guangdong province have seen infections from the newly arrived Omicron variant.

• The officials urged the residents to stay in their respective cities during the Lunar New Year as China continues with its ‘zero-COVID policy’.

• The patient with infection from the Omicron variant had his residence and workspace sealed with authorities mass-testing.

• China has reported one hundred and nineteen infections as reported on Saturday.

• The country has recorded 104,864 infections since the onset of the pandemic.