The Chinese city of Tianjin reported fewer COVID-19 cases on Tuesday after quickly taking measures to curb the highly transmissable Omicron variant, steps that have also affected the local operations of foreign firms such as Boeing.
Tianjin, a key port in northern China, reported 18 domestically transmitted cases with confirmed symptoms for Monday, the National Health Commission (NHC) data showed on Tuesday. That marks the lowest daily number in a week.
NHC official He Qinghua said on Saturday the risk of the Tianjin outbreak spreading to other areas was gradually declining, as new cases in the past three days were mainly in people who had been quarantined.
The China unit of US planemaker Boeing said on Tuesday that a small number of employees has been impacted by various “community-level lockdowns” during the Tianjin outbreak.
“We are currently maintaining a normal level of operation,” Boeing China said in a response to Reuters queries.
Assembly plants for Volkswagen and Toyota in Tianjin remained closed due to the outbreak.
The component factory of Volkswagen in the city has resumed some of the shifts since Thursday last week, according to a statement from Volkswagen Group China on Tuesday.
Tianjin reported over 300 local symptomatic cases from the current cluster, which has also spread Omicron infections to two other cities. It remains unclear how many local cases exactly in Tianjin were Omicron.
