China tightens controls as more cases are reported

Cities in northeastern China's Jilin Province are scrambling to build makeshift hospitals to take in COVID-19 cases as the region is hit hard by the omicron variant. Changchun, the capital city of Jilin Province with a population of 9 million, reported 63 confirmed cases and 97 asymptomatic carriers on Friday.

The city started to go under lockdown on Friday and will conduct three rounds of mass testing. Construction to turn the Changchun International Conference and Exhibition Centre into a makeshift hospital began on Thursday and is scheduled to be completed on Sunday. It will provide 1,500 beds. Meanwhile, three makeshift hospitals in Jilin City have been put into use to provide nearly 1,200 beds. China added 476 cases of local transmission nationwide on Saturday, 134 of them in Jilin province and 159 in Shandong Province.