Some Beijing cinemas to open this week

China's capital, Beijing, will reopen some cinemas on Friday while maintaining strict epidemic control and prevention measures, said a senior official from the government on Tuesday.

Wang Jiequn, head of Beijing's film bureau, said at a news conference that cinemas in Beijing's low-risk areas can gradually reopen to the public starting on Friday.

By Monday, all the communities and streets in Beijing were designated as low-risk areas.

Wang said all tickets must be reserved online and buyers are required to provide their identities and viewers must wear masks.

"The distance between each viewer should be longer than 1 meter and attendance at the theaters should be no more than 30 percent," she added.

According to a July 16 statement from the China Film Administration, the sector's top regulator, movie theaters in the country started to reopen in low-risk areas on Monday. Theaters in medium-and high-risk areas will remain closed, the statement said.

Wu Zunyou, chief epidemiologist at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said on Tuesday that Beijing has lowered its public health emergency response from the second to the third level starting on Monday, which means the COVID-19 epidemic related to the Xinfadi wholesale market has stopped spreading.