China faces new COVID outbreak as first Omicron case is reported
Al JazeeraOutbreak in three Zhejiang cities – Ningbo, Shaoxing and Hangzhou – was developing at a ‘relatively rapid’ speed as 50,000 people are placed under quarantine. On Tuesday, Xinhua news agency reported an additional 37 locally-transmitted confirmed COVID-19 cases in Zhejiang’s city of Shaoxing, bringing the total number of locally-transmitted confirmed cases in the city to 144. Earlier, the entire Zhejiang province reported 74 locally transmitted symptomatic cases on December 12 – almost double the previous day’s 38 cases. The outbreak in three Zhejiang cities – Ningbo, Shaoxing and Hangzhou – was developing at a “relatively rapid” speed, while the situation nationwide was largely stable, National Health Commission official Wu Liangyou said on Saturday. Apart from the local symptomatic infections in Zhejiang, Shaanxi province and the northern Chinese region of Inner Mongolia reported one and five local cases respectively on Sunday.