China reported 13,146 Covid cases as Omicron variant spread to more than a dozen provinces. (File)

Beijing:

China Sunday reported 13,146 Covid cases, the highest since the peak of the first wave more than two years ago, as the highly transmissible Omicron variant spread to more than a dozen provinces.

“There were 1,455 patients with symptoms …. 11,691 asymptomatic cases… and no new deaths reported,” the National Health Commission said in a statement.

In China’s financial hub Shanghai, the epicentre of the country’s most severe Covid, outbreak, nearly all of its 25 million residents were under stay-at-home orders on Saturday as officials rushed to curb the spread of the disease.

Shanghai’s restrictions threaten to snarl supply chains, with shipping giant Maersk saying Friday that some depots in the city remained closed and trucking services would likely be hit further due to the lockdown.

China, the country where the coronavirus was first detected in 2019, is among the last remaining places following a zero-Covid approach to the pandemic.

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