Medical workers conduct the third round of full-scale nucleic acid testing on November 14, 2021 in a university in Dalian, Northeast China's Liaoning Province. Photo: CFP

The latest COVID-19 outbreak in the northern Chinese city Tianjin has spread to at least two other cities - Anyang in Central China's Henan Province and Dalian, a port city in Northeast China's Liaoning Province, and local authorities in Dalian on Wednesday said the epidemic situation was basically under control.

Local authorities in Dalian said at a press conference on Wednesday that two college students returned from Tianjin to Dalian and were found with the Omicron variant - the same transmission chain as that found in Tianjin. They were both fully vaccinated. 

According to the Dalian government, a total of 71 local close contacts with the two positive cases have been traced as of Wednesday. Among them, 28 are currently in Dalian, all of whom have been put under quarantine at designated facilities and have tested negative for COVID-19. The other 43 are non-local residents, whose information has been sent to the local authorities of related provinces and cities.

Since the Omicron variant is highly infectious and hides well among the masses, local authorities in Dalian have carried out a higher level of control on all close contacts and sub-close contacts.

Dalian officials also noted that government rapidly implemented classified management according to the results of the epidemic investigation. The key groups were transferred to designated facilities for quarantine, while the others involved in the outbreak were quarantined at home with home-based services provided by their communities.

Dalian is the second place where local cases have been found related to the outbreak in Tianjin. Another city is Anyang. On January 8, a college student who returned to Anyang from Tianjin caused a new wave of coronavirus infections in Anyang.

As confirmed by the China CDC, the virus causing one of the positive cases in Dalian is found to be highly homologous to the virus that caused the confirmed case in Anyang.

This is not the first time Dalian has faced the pressure of the outbreak of COVID-19. On January 7, a local court sentenced three executives of a cargo handling company to prison terms between 39 and 57 months and their company was fined 800,000 yuan ($125,478). The three were found violating epidemic prevention measures and resulting in the spread of COVID-19 from cold-chain goods to communities in 2020. A total of 83 confirmed and asymptomatic cases of infection were reported during the outbreak due to the irregularities in cargo handling by the company.

Global Times