Beijing tightens COVID-19 controls in capital after Omicron case detected

• Beijing tightens its COVID-19 restrictions after a case of Omicron COVID-19 was reported.
• All inbound travelers are required to take a COVID-19 test within 72 hours of arriving in the city.
• These additional COVID-19 restrictions come into effect just two weeks before the Beijing Olympics.

China is just two weeks away from the opening ceremony of the 2022 Winter Olympics, but Beijing is tightening COVID-19 controls after a case of Omicron was detected there.

Although the Chinese capital has not gone into full lockdown mode, all incoming travelers are now required to take an additional COVID-19 test within 72 hours of arriving in the city, according to the government newspaper. Beijing Daily.

Current COVID-19 protocols already require travelers to the city to test negative for COVID-19 within 48 hours of their arrival trip, per Reuters.

Beijing reported its only Omicron case on Saturday. According to Reuters, the infected person’s residential complex and workplace are under lockdown.

Beijing detected the Omicron infection less than a week after detection in Tianjin, a neighboring city in the north 97 cases of COVID-19 in the city and subjected its entire population of 14 million to mandatory COVID-19 testing.

China’s response to the Covid-zero pandemic is to quickly lock down entire cities after COVID-19 infections are detected.

As of January 11, around 20 million people across China were under China’s COVID-19 lockdown protocols. The city of Xi’an, home to 13 million people, was placed under lockdown on Dec. 23 after registering around 1,000 COVID-19 cases between Dec. 9 and Dec. 23. Yuzhou, a central Chinese city of 1.2 million people, has been placed under lockdown in January after authorities detected three asymptomatic cases. And Anyang, a city of 5.5 million people, also faced restrictions after two reported cases of the Omicron variant.

The Beijing Olympics begin on February 4, 2022.. The country plans to implement a “closed loop” bubble, where athletes, officials, broadcasters and journalists can only travel to designated locations. The Associated Press reported that athletes would be required to take daily COVID-19 tests, and the public would not be allowed to sing when cheering on the athletes and would be limited to applause.