China's dynamic strategy effective against Omicron, health official says

China's dynamic zero COVID-19 strategy is effective in tackling the Omicron variant as the domestic epidemic situation remains stable, a health official said on Saturday.

He Qinghua, an official with the National Health Commission's Disease Prevention and Control Bureau, said that 14 provinces in China have reported imported infections with the Omicron variant, and several cities and provinces have also registered local Omicron cases.

"The new strain has spread to over 150 countries and regions across the world and become the dominant variant in some regions," he said during a news briefing. "The risk of the novel coronavirus being transmitted into China via people or objects is getting bigger."

He said the new strain does not affect the sensitivity and specificity of China's nucleic acid testing kits, and China's key virus containment strategy is capable of tackling the virus.

"The overall epidemic situation is stable and local outbreaks in some regions can be effectively reined in within relatively short time," he said.

He said the local outbreak in Tianjin municipality triggered by the Omicron variant spilled over to Anyang, Henan province, and Dalian, Liaoning province, but its risk of spreading further is falling.

Infection clusters in Shaanxi province, other cities in Henan province and Shenzhen in Guangdong province are also showing signs of abating, he added.

In addition, he said, new infections detected in Zhuhai and Zhongshan cities in Guangdong province, as well as Shanghai municipality since Thursday were all found to be with the Omicron variant. Hangzhou in Zhejiang province also reported one new local infection on Friday.

As of Friday, China had administered more than 2.9 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses, including 477 million delivered to people aged 3 to 17, according to the commission.

It added that over 1.22 billion people had been fully vaccinated, covering nearly 86.6 percent of total population.