NANJING -- The eastern Chinese city of Suzhou reported three confirmed COVID-19 cases and five asymptomatic carriers, from midnight on Wednesday to Thursday noon, according to local health authorities.

As of Thursday noon, Suzhou has registered a total of 45 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 16 asymptomatic carriers amid the fresh outbreak starting from Feb 13, said the city's epidemic prevention and control headquarters.

Currently, the city has 29 medium-risk areas for COVID-19. From 7 am Wednesday to Thursday noon, Suzhou had sampled over 8.27 million residents during its mass nucleic acid testing campaign.

The city's center for disease prevention and control has detected the Omicron variant in specimens taken from current confirmed cases based on gene sequencing results. Further epidemiological investigations and source tracing related to the city's existing cases are being carried out.