Weeks ahead of Winter Olympics, Beijing reports 3 more covid-19 cases

|HT|

China's capital Beijing has reported three more Covid-19 cases since Monday, weeks before the Winter Olympics are scheduled to kick off in the capital on February 4. Health authorities have been stepping up anti-epidemic measures such as locking down places where the three visited recently and carrying out PCR tests targeting those who may have come into contact with the infected people, raising tensions in the city.

Beijing on Saturday reported the first local infection of the highly transmissible Omicron variant, involving a person who had visited multiple malls and restaurants in the previous 14 days. The person had not left the city since the start of this year.

The Covid-19 Omicron variant has been cropping up across China in recent days, including in major port cities like Dalian and Tianjin.

Meanwhile, China on Monday announced that it will restrain selling tickets to the general public for the Beijing Winter Olympics and Paralympics. As per the organizers, the move comes amid community infections of the highly contagious Omicron coronavirus variant that have been expanding in China.

(Except for the headline and the pictorial description, this story has not been edited by THE DEN staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)