Beijing plans to quickly break transmission chains

As Beijing faces increasing pressure due to recent COVID-19 cluster infections, the capital will quickly break virus transmission chains in accordance with dynamic zero-COVID requirements, a senior official told a news conference on Monday.

Pang Xinghuo, deputy director of the Beijing Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said the city reported five new locally transmitted confirmed cases of COVID-19 from 3 pm Sunday to 4 pm Monday in its Chaoyang, Dongcheng and Shunyi districts.

Two of them are students at a primary school in Dongcheng.

Pang reminded parents to try not to leave Beijing in the near future and not take their children to crowded public places.

Dongcheng promptly initiated the work of collecting and testing nucleic acid samples, according to Liu Juncai, deputy head of the district.

A total of 2,172 samples were collected from teachers, students and workers at the primary school, as well as people living with them and the surrounding environment. The results of 2,060 samples were negative and the remaining results were yet to be reported, she said.

Liu said the school had been closed and the students are learning via online classrooms. In addition, all after-school training activities in Dongcheng have been suspended.

Since March 7, Beijing has reported a total of 35 local infections in several districts.

According to a news conference on Sunday, six transmission chains have emerged in the capital.

In one chain, all the members of two families were infected.

In another chain, the first case went to various crowded places after returning to Beijing and had close contacts with many people, increasing the difficulty of prevention and control.

In neighboring Hebei province, the pressure on epidemic prevention and control is also increasing.

On Sunday, Hebei reported 51 new locally transmitted COVID-19 cases and 162 asymptomatic carriers in Langfang, Cangzhou and Xingtai, the provincial health commission said on Monday.

As of Sunday, the province had 182 locally transmitted confirmed cases with 247 asymptomatic cases still under medical observation.

On Sunday, several cities in Hebei implemented stricter prevention and control measures to prevent the further spread of the virus.

Some districts in Langfang have prohibited all vehicles and personnel from entering or leaving, except those necessary for the national economy and people's livelihoods, epidemic prevention and control, and emergency rescue.