Authorities in Beijing announced today that they will perform diagnostic tests for covid-19 on all residents of a district less than two weeks before the start of the Winter Olympics in the Chinese capital.
Last weekend, the first case of the highly contagious coronavirus Omicron strain was found in Beijing on a man who had received a letter from Canada which authorities said had traces of the virus on it.
Since then, about 30 cases have been identified in the city, some of which are due to the Delta strain.
The World Health Organization has, however, estimated that the risk of surface contamination is low.
The Fengtai district in southern Beijing is the epicenter of the epidemic.
For precautionary reasons, all the residents of the district are undergoing diagnostic tests for covid-19 from today, the local authorities pointed out, after the detection of six new cases.
About 2 million people live in the district.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, China has pursued a zero-tolerance policy against covid-19, imposing travel restrictions and targeted lockdowns to minimize the occurrence of new cases.
Sporadic outbreaks have been reported regularly in recent months, and Chinese authorities have stepped up their vigilance in anticipation of the Beijing Winter Olympics from February 4 to 20.
Fengtai is located about 20 km from the site of some competitions.
In addition, in this district is the Sinfadi market, where in 2020 another outbreak of the epidemic was detected with traces of the new coronavirus being found on a cutting surface of imported salmon.
Since then, the Chinese authorities have been very careful with the management of the cold supply chain and have been concerned about contamination by covid-19 through imported products.
About 1,000 kilometers from Beijing, the northern Chinese city of Xi’an is set to lift the lockdown on Tuesday, local officials said Saturday.
The city was the epicenter of the covid-19 epidemic in China in late December, with 13 million people in the most severe quarantine in Wuhan, the first city in the world to enter a lockdown at the start of the pandemic.
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