ISTANBUL

The omicron variant of the coronavirus has spread to China’s central Henan province which is now battling both delta and omicron variants.

China’s National Commission of Health said in a statement on Tuesday that 110 local cases were recorded on Monday across the country and 87 of them were detected in Henan.

The Anyang city in the province has been under lockdown since Monday.

People have been asked to stay home, while public transport is off the roads and almost all production activities are suspended, Chinese daily Global Times reported.

Authorities have also stopped selling train tickets to Beijing which will host the world’s biggest winter games starting early next month.

Yuzhou, another city in the Henan province, has also been under lockdown since Sunday and is conducting mass testing.

Xi’an, the capital of the northwestern Shaanxi province, recorded just 13 cases. The city of 13 million is still under lockdown for over the past two weeks after the virus outbreak. The cases were linked to the delta variant.

The northern Tianjin city recorded 10 new COVID-19 cases, with authorities imposing restrictions on mass gatherings.

China also recorded 82 imported cases on Monday.

In the southern Shenzhen city, a local hospital used drones to deliver testing samples to fast track the mass testing of the people.

In Hong Kong, China’s semi-autonomous region, Chief Executive Carrie Lam announced on Tuesday that all childcare centers, kindergartens and primary schools will close for face-to-face classes from Friday in light of the omicron outbreaks in the region.

China has so far reported 103,968 COVID-19 cases, including 4,636 deaths, since December 2019.