Office tower in Beijing locked down with workers still inside after Omicron case found

The snap lockdown meant the building in the west of the city was sealed off without advance warning, with everybody inside unable to leave and subject to compulsory Covid testing. The decision to lock the office down came after an employee tested positive for Omicron on Saturday -- the city's first recorded case of the highly transmissible variant.

The single case in Beijing has been identified at the worst possible time for the city, as it prepares to welcome thousands of athletes for the Olympics -- including from countries where Omicron is raging. The residents inside are allowed fresh air, in contrast to stricter lockdowns in other parts of the country that confine people to their apartments -- but they can't leave the community limits. Trash is beginning to pile up inside the complex, with only specially-designated disposal teams permitted to handle it. Many nearby businesses are closed.

Chinese officials have repeatedly blamed imported goods for causing local outbreaks. However, the risk of surface transmission of Covid-19 is low in comparison to airborne transmission, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention . The virus dies "rapidly" on porous surfaces but can persist longer on hard, indoor surfaces, the CDC said last year.

Wang Guangfa, a respiratory expert at Peking University First Hospital, said the situation was still difficult to gauge since authorities don't know where the woman was infected. "It is very possible that new cases will emerge if the cause is unclear," he said, according to state-run tabloidThough any additional infections could spark more restrictions in the coming days, there is no need to overreact to a single case, which wouldn't impact the Olympics, Wang added.

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