BEIJING: Less than a week away from the New Year holiday, sporadic COVID-19 cases have resurfaced in China’s capital of Beijing as well as northeast Liaoning Province and the southern high-tech hub of Shenzhen, prompting authorities to tighten up epidemic control measures.
In the past 14 days, Beijing has reported a total of nine locally transmitted confirmed COVID-19 cases. Three urban districts in the capital city have conducted large-scale nucleic acid tests in key places where the cases were traced. Five confirmed COVID-19 cases and an asymptomatic case reported in Beijing on Saturday all appeared in Shunyi District. Four of them work in an industrial park and one is a staff member of a supermarket in the district. The 40-year-old asymptomatic case is a taxi driver living in the district.
The district government conducted nucleic acid tests on more than 800,000 people in 13 villages and towns as of Saturday evening. By 3 p.m. Sunday, 838,270 people had been sampled and 389,294 people had tested negative. The remaining samples are still undergoing testing. Meanwhile, by Sunday, Chaoyang District of Beijing has tested 234,413 people in three communities where coronavirus infections were reported on Friday. Those sampled have all tested negative for COVID-19. In Xicheng District, nucleic acid tests have been completed on 9,566 people in key areas related to an asymptomatic case reported on Dec. 23. So far, they have all tested negative for COVID-19. No new locally transmitted confirmed, asymptomatic or suspected COVID-19 cases were reported in Beijing on Sunday, according to the municipal health commission. In addition to expanding the range and frequency of nucleic acid tests in the key areas, the capital will conduct mass tests on new employees in service industries such as catering establishments, retail markets, farm produce markets and supermarkets, said Xu Hejian, a spokesperson for the Beijing municipal government, at a press briefing on Sunday. As for the possible risks and potential dangers in cold-chain food, downtown Xicheng District has started to conduct nucleic acid testing once a week for all employees involved in the cold-chain, catering and food industries since Saturday. –PNP
