COVID-19 cases were reported across the Chinese mainland, compared with 43 in the previous day. Officials in Suzhou, a city 30 minutes west of Shanghai, have detected a mutation of the Omicron variant not found in local or international databases, state media reported on Sunday. "This means a new variant of Omicron has been discovered locally," Xinhua said, citing health official Zhang Jun, deputy director of the Suzhou Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
The current outbreak is also testing the patience of the Chinese towards tough restrictions, at a time when much of the world has re-opened.
On Sunday, the 1.5 million residents of Baicheng in northeast China joined the ranks of tens of millions of other Chinese who have endured some form of lockdown over the last month, disrupting work and damaging the economy.
China recorded 13,146 cases on Sunday, the National Health Commission said in a statement, with "no new deaths" reported. It is the country's highest daily infection tally since mid-February 2020.