Beijing records 41 new locally transmitted confirmed cases

Beijing reported 41 new locally transmitted confirmed cases and nine new asymptomatic carriers between 3 pm on Sunday and 3 pm on Monday, bringing the city's total infections to 400 since April 22, according to the Beijing CDC on Monday.

Among the new infections, 45 were reported from the controlled zones and five were found during the mass nucleic acid testings at community level, said Pang Xinghuo, deputy director of the Beijing CDC, at a news conference on Monday afternoon.

Of the total 400 infections during this round of the outbreak, Chaoyang district registered 156 cases, followed by Fangshan district, which reported 103 cases by Monday since April 22, said Pang.

During the same period, Tongzhou district recorded 43 cases and Fengtai district 29 cases, she added.

"After the analysis of the confirmed cases, the Beijing CDC has found that many clusters were caused by dining together outside and many cases weren't vaccinated, which raised the infection risks," Pang said.

She said the cases went to a wide range of places in the city, which also increased infections.

To curb the epidemic and cut transmission, the municipal authority has decided to conduct three rounds of nucleic acid testings on May 3, 4 and 5 successively for all the residents living and working in 12 districts, including Dongcheng, Xicheng, Chaoyang, Haidian, Fengtai, Shijingshan and Fangshan, said Li Ang, deputy director of the Beijing Municipal Health Commission, at the news conference.

He said the city has conducted several rounds of mass nucleic acid testings since April 25, which has effectively helped to discover the risk and cut the virus spreading.

Due to increasing number of COVID-19 cases, two more residential communities in Chaoyang and one more in Fangshan were designated as high-risk areas starting on Monday.

As of Monday afternoon, Beijing had 10 high-risk areas for COVID-19 and 26 medium-risk areas.