First Omicron Case Reported on Chinese Mainland

What’s new: Tianjin has detected the omicron coronavirus variant in an overseas arrival, becoming the first place on the Chinese mainland to discover an omicron case.

Health authorities in the northern city said the patient was initially identified as a Covid-19 asymptomatic carrier on Thursday, according to state-run broadcaster CCTV.

The case was later confirmed as an omicron infection on Monday, after the local disease control center carried out genome sequencing of the patient’s respiratory tract samples, the CCTV report said.