Beijing raises one district to high-risk level after 6 new cases found

Beijing raised a residential community in Changping district to high-risk level of COVID-19 control and prevention as six locally transmitted cases were reported from the area by Saturday noon, said the municipal government official at a news conference on Saturday.

Currently, the capital has only this one high-risk area and the rest are all low-risk areas.

Since the new outbreak occurred in other provinces last week, Beijing had reported four local transmitted cases by 11 am Friday, and then another three new cases were recorded by 11 am Saturday, according to the Beijing Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

Five of the confirmed cases, including a couple, traveled to Inner Mongolia, Ningxia Hui autonomous regions and Shanxi together from Oct 12 to 15 by car, according to Pang Xinghuo, deputy director of the center.

"By now, all of the five members of the tour have been confirmed with COVID-19 and the other two cases were invited to the couple's home to play cards after the latter came back to Beijing after the trip," said Pang.

Changping district, where seven cases were reported by 11 am Saturday, has found 422 close contacts who are being transferred to designated locations for centralized quarantine.

To control and cut transmission, the local authority swiftly tested 379,240 residents in the area by 10 am Saturday. The authority has released the tracks of the patients who have been to supermarkets, drug stores, banks and restaurants in order to find other possible infected people.

Earlier this week, Beijing reported two cases in Fengtai district, who were also a couple and the husband was a close contact of a confirmed case when they boarded train K42 from Dunhuang, Gansu province, to Beijing.