By HUIZHONG WU
Associated Press
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — The “stealth omicron” variant is fueling China’s biggest COVID-19 outbreak in two years, with 1,337 local cases tallied across the mainland. The majority were in far northeastern Jilin province, which effectively banned personal movement throughout the province starting Monday. In Shanghai, authorities are locking down individual buildings rather than the whole city, but cases are rising. Numbers in mainland China are still low relative to Europe, the U.S., or even the city of Hong Kong. But until now, China has seen very few infections since its strict Wuhan lockdown two years ago. The government is maintaining its zero-tolerance strategy to stop the virus quickly with lockdowns and mandatory quarantines for close contacts.
