China Detected Omicron in another Port City; Threatening Supply Chains

China just detected omicron in their second major port city, intensifying concerns of a wider COVID-19 outbreak at Beijing and raising the prospect that more foreign businesses might follow Toyota Motor Corp. in halting operations along the northeastern coast.

According to the Chinese officials on Thursday, at least one person has the more transmissible omicron variant in Dalian, a city of seven million. The patient showed no symptoms, but tested positive after returning from their college in the nearby city of Tianjin, where at least 137 other cases were traced as of Wednesday. A second person in Dalian has also tested positive with the virus, but the variant is unknown.

As of the moment, Dalian joins Tianjin as the second crucial port city with confirmed omicron cases. Their ports are among the twenty largest in the world -- processing a combined total of 25 million TEU in 2020 -- and serve as major production hubs for foreign companies such as Airbus and Volkswagen. Amid Covid-induced delays near Beijing and elsewhere, ships are heading for Shanghai, causing growing congestion there and delaying schedules for container ships by about a week, according to freight forwarders. The delays could ripple as far as the U.S. and Europe, Bloomberg news reported.


©Photo: cnsphoto via REUTERS