China traced back its first Omicron case to a document from Canada

Beijing [China], January 19 (ANI): The first case of the Omicron variant in China was traced back to an international document received from Canada, according to the Beijing health authorities that suggested people to reduce purchasing of overseas commodities.

The document was found to have similar strains from those in North America and Singapore and the traces of the Omicron Variant was detected on the outer package, internal surface and papers of the mail.

Furthermore, the patient who was found with Omicron on Saturday had received an international mail on January 11 which was sent from Canada on January 7, transferred via the US and China's Hong Kong region to Beijing, reported Global Times.

Pang Xinghuo, deputy director of the Beijing centre for disease control and prevention, in a press conference said, combined with the epidemiological studies, the testing results of suspicious samples and the gene sequencing result of the case, the possibility that the Beijing case was infected by the virus through the international mail cannot be ruled out.

He further added that the COVID-19 virus can survive for a long time in low temperature, thus the risk of goods causing the viral transmission increases in winter.

Notably, Beijing battles with epidemic ahead of the scheduled next month's Winter Olympics as four COVID-19 infections, with both the Delta and Omicron variants, were detected recently.

It tightened anti-epidemic measures and urged all departments to fend off COVID-19 flare-ups in the city with all-around measures ahead of the Winter Olympics. (ANI)