BEIJING will require nucleic acid tests within 72 hours of entry into the city, in a move to step up COVID-19 prevention after the city reported its first local Omicron case Saturday.

The policy will start Jan. 22 and last through the end of March, according to Beijing Daily, covering the Chinese New Year holiday season and the city’s Winter Olympics.

Previously Beijing required travelers to provide a negative nucleic acid result within 48 hours ahead of entry and a valid health code.

The Omicron carrier who lives and works in Beijing’s Haidian District twice underwent nucleic acid testing and tested positive both times.

Two people who live together with the case tested negative, said Pang Xinghuo, deputy director of the city’s disease control and prevention center said Saturday.

Beijing has ruled out the risk of COVID-19 hotspots in connection with the Omicron case as test results of all related risky places came back negative, health authorities in the city’s Haidian district said yesterday.

The nucleic acid testing covers the residential community, Boyaxiyuan, where the patient lives, as well as its neighboring communities. Apart from the patient and the places that the patient lives and works, all other testing results were negative, Zhao Chengfang, a deputy director of the health commission in Haidian District, said.

Beijing has become the latest city to register an Omicron-infected case after Shanghai, Zhuhai and Zhongshan in South China’s Guangdong Province, North China’s Tianjin and Anyang in Central China Henan Province.

North China’s Tianjin Municipality reported 33 locally transmitted confirmed COVID-19 cases Saturday, the city’s health authority said at a press conference yesterday.

Among them, six were earlier identified as asymptomatic carriers.

Zhuhai reported seven locally transmitted Omicron cases Friday. The city has canceled all flights to Beijing, and several nearby cities suspended expressway or waterway routes to Zhuhai.

The seven cases were found by large-scale nucleic acid tests to several towns and communities, and preliminary gene sequencing results showed the virus was the Omicron variant, the Zhuhai government announced Friday night. Among the seven positive cases, one was symptomatic and the rest were asymptomatic.

The nucleic acid testing in Zhuhai was carried out after Zhongshan, a neighboring city of Zhuhai, reported one locally transmitted case Wednesday. The infection source found in Zhongshan remains unknown.

Chines infectious disease expert Zhang Wenhong on Saturday said that the Omicron variant brings fewer serious illnesses but its virulence should not be overlooked.

China will continue to face a high risk of imported cases in the next half year, but this cold winter will probably be the last winter in the pandemic following the increasing herd immunity level and the new COVID-19 drugs, Zhang said in an interview with the China Central Television on Saturday.

Zhang stressed the importance of receiving a booster shot as it could raise the number of anti-bodies significantly. As for a fourth shot, Zhang believes it is too early to consider it.

Zhang believes in the coming year, whether it is the level of herd immunity, the immune barrier established through vaccines, or the launch of COVID-19 drugs, the situation will get better.

(SD-Agencies)