Thread by @FLAHAULT

1/10 - “As #Omicron infections spread from Tianjin to Henan Province, several regions, including Beijing, urged residents to stay put during the upcoming Spring Festival, and tightened their #COVID19 prevention policies.”
globaltimes.cn/page/202201/12…

2/10 - “Anyang, a city with a population of 5 million in Central China's Henan Province, began city-wide testing and imposed strict #COVID19 prevention measures, such as stopping outbound railway, bus and taxi services, after the city reported 26 cases during the past 2 days.”

3/10 - “Most of the confirmed cases in Anyang are students from a local middle school in the city's Tangyin county. The local government has identified 1,495 close contacts and put them under quarantine. It began to test people in the whole city.”

4/10 - “The city set up health monitoring points at every entrance and exit; suspended ticket sales for trains and buses that go out of the city, and ordered taxis and ride-hailing vehicles not to go out, a move to prevent Anyang's outbreak from spilling over.”

5/10 - “The Henan city has become the first place to be affected by the flare-up in Tianjin, which is now fighting a real battle against #Omicron after two #COVID19 cases were found with the more contagious variant over the weekend. Tianjin reported 31 local confirmed cases.”

6/10 - “Jin Dongyan, prof Univ Hong Kong, said that there's no need for Tianjin to seal off the city just because of this handful of cases. Jin said that the city has to re-evaluate its decision on a lockdown if confirmed cases keep climbing and more places report spillovers.”

7/10 - “Nearby Beijing is on high alert and closely watching Tianjin's #COVID19 situation as China's Spring Festival and 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games are only few weeks away. 
Most people who travelled out of Tianjin since January 1 this year headed to Beijing.”

8/10 - “Lu Hongzhou, Shenzhen, said that although the risk of a wider spillover exists, the possibility of China experiencing a large-scale outbreak is unlikely. He cited the country's two years' #ZeroCovid policy, which helps extinguish outbreaks once they emerge.”

9/10 - “The policy also facilitates mass nucleic acid testing, which helps to identify outbreaks and quickly track down potential infected people with big data. Further, Chinese people strictly follow anti-epidemic measures rolled out by the government, Lu said.”

10/10 - “Wu Zunyou, the chief epidemiologist at the Chinese CDC, said that people infected with the #Omicron variant usually demonstrate mild symptoms, which makes it difficult to identify and easier for it to spread, posing bigger challenges for epidemic control and prevention.”