Beijing reports COVID-19 Omicron variant

As Beijing reported its first outbreak involving the Omicron subvariant BA.5.2, the epidemic situation remains controllable, a senior health official said on Wednesday.

Gene sequencing results showed latest cluster of COVID-19 infections in Beijing involved the Omicron subvariant BA.5.2, Pang Xinghuo, deputy director of the Beijing Center for Disease Control and Prevention said at a Wednesday news conference.

"The center conducted gene sequencing on samples from the first three locally transmitted confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the latest outbreak," Pang said. "It is not on the same transmission chain as the previous local cases or imported cases. We preliminary identified it as a local cluster linked to imported cases."

Beijing reported nine new infections between Tuesday and 3 pm on Wednesday, including one asymptomatic case. All the new cases were people under quarantine.

The total number of infections rose to 12 in the current outbreak which first emerged on Monday. So far, it involved four districts, with Yanqing registering eight cases, the most in the outbreak. Shunyi district had two and Tongzhou and Changping had one each.

The outbreak involved people who had returned from overseas, the local authority said on Tuesday.