First local omicron outbreak in China – near Beijing

When the first Omicron infections appeared in the USA and Europe a few weeks ago, Chinese state media still described their country as an “impregnable fortress”. The belief was that the government’s strict zero-covid policy would be enough to prevent that new and much more contagious virus variant could spread in the People’s Republic. Whether this is true will now be seen in Beijing’s neighboring city of Tianjin, where the first local Omicron infections were registered.