Omicron cases linked to parcels

Overseas delivery cited as possible source of new infection in Beijing

The first individuals in Beijing and Shenzhen infected with the Omicron variant of COVID-19 both had contact with parcels from North America, health authorities from the two cities said on Monday.

Shenzhen, in Guangdong province, reported its first case of the Omicron variant on Sunday. The city's center for disease control and prevention said at a news conference on Monday that the individual was not in the same transmission chain as other domestic Omicron cases or previous imported cases in Shenzhen. But the virus strain involved was homologous to the genomes from North America in the global database.

The infected individual, who worked in the cold chain industry, had touched packages from North America on Jan 12.

Gene sequence analysis had shown the genome of the first Omicron case in Beijing, reported on Saturday, was highly similar to the strains detected in North America and Singapore, Pang Xinghuo, deputy director of the Beijing Municipal Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said on Monday.

The Beijing patient had not traveled outside the city in the previous 14 days, Pang said.

A package sent from Canada on Jan 7 arrived in Beijing via the United States and Hong Kong on Jan 11.

The patient had touched the outer surface of the package and the first page of the document within.

The center said 22 samples had been collected from the package and the surrounding environment, including two from the surface, two from the inside of the packaging and eight from the paper in the document. All samples tested positive.

Pang said it's possible the patient was infected by the items from overseas.

She reminded the public not to buy things too frequently from overseas during the pandemic and wear masks and disposable gloves when receiving mail from abroad.

Lin Hang, deputy head of Haidian district, where the infected person lives and works, said at the news conference that the deliveryman who gave the parcel to the individual had since returned two negative nucleic acid tests.

Liao Lingzhu, spokesperson of the Beijing Municipal Postal Administration, said the family members and all the staff members of the department where the deliveryman works are in quarantine. The test results of family members have all been negative and tests of the staff members are being conducted.

By Monday morning, 16,547 samples of close contacts had been collected. The samples of all personnel, including those living and working with the patient, were negative.

Xu Hejian, spokesperson of the Beijing municipal government, said Beijing is facing epidemic prevention and control challenges from home and abroad.

"Beijing will make all-out efforts to ensure the safety of the capital and its citizens and the Winter Olympics by strictly following epidemic prevention and control measures," he said.

The State Post Bureau announced on Sunday that it will strengthen prevention and control measures to avoid the entry of the virus via international mail.