Tianjin began the fourth round city-wide screening for COVID-19 cases on Thursday morning. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Tianjin reported 14 fresh Omicron cases on Thursday, raising the total number of confirmed cases to 340, said He Peng, spokesperson of the Tianjin Health Commission at a news briefing.

The authorities began the fourth round of city-wide screening through nucleic acid tests on Thursday morning and completed collecting samples of its 14 million population by noon. The city had reported its first locally transmitted Omicron case on Jan 8.

The number of confirmed cases has dropped significantly since Jan 16 and the pandemic has been effectively curbed in the clusters of Jinnan district, He said.