China battles multiple Covid outbreaks driven by stealth Omicron

Medical workers help residents get tested for the coronavirus at a temporary testing centre in Hong Kong on Monday March 14 2022 (Kin Cheung/AP)

Chinese authorities have reported 1,337 locally transmitted cases of Covid-19 across dozens of mainland cities as the fast-spreading variant commonly known as “stealth Omicron” fuels the country’s biggest outbreak in two years.

The vast majority of the new cases were in the far northeastern Jilin province with 895.