China has reported more local symptomatic COVID-19 cases so far this year than it recorded in all of 2021, as the highly transmissible Omicron variant triggers outbreaks from Shanghai to Shenzhen.
Mainland China reported 1,337 new domestically transmitted COVID cases with confirmed symptoms on March 13, the National Health Commission (NHC) said on Monday. That brought the total this year to more than 9,000, compared with 8,378 in 2021.
In the past week, new COVID cases have been reported in Beijing and the financial hub of Shanghai, as well as in the provinces of Guangdong, Jiangsu, Shandong and Zhejiang along the coast.
While the number of infections is small compared with caseloads elsewhere in the world, the rapid rate of increase has activated China's dynamic zero COVID policy, which mandates that infections are quickly identified and contained.
Further south in the city of Shenzhen, China's Silicon Valley, officials have temporarily suspended public transport and urged people to work from home as they carry out city-wide testing this week following the surge in new cases, Reuters reported.
