All students in Tianjin Municipality started their winter break on Wednesday, as the city combats a COVID-19 spike, local officials from the Tianjin CDC told a news briefing. Authorities noted that 137 cases have been recorded in the latest surge, including 76 locally transmitted.

Tianjin confirmed China's first local Omicron variant infection on January 8, and subsequently reported 77 positive cases in its first round of citywide testing. The second round of mass testing began at noon on Wednesday.