Cumulative tally rises to nearly 900 in Beijing

Beijing reported 56 new locally transmitted COVID-19 cases in 24 hours starting Tuesday afternoon, bringing the total number of infections to 892 since April 22. Fifteen districts are involved, according to Pang Xinghuo, deputy director of the Beijing Center for Disease Prevention and Control, who spoke at a news conference on Wednesday.

All new infections were reported in controlled zones, she said.

Of the 892 cases found by Wednesday, Chaoyang district registered 335 cases, the most of any area, followed by Fangshan, which reported 262. Tongzhou reported 68 cases and Fengtai reported 69 cases during the same period.

"Hidden transmission risks still exist at the community level," Pang said. "New cases should be dealt with within 24 hours."

Beijing has reported two new clusters from workplaces discovered successively on Monday and Tuesday, which has added uncertainty to the situation.

On Monday, Beijing reported a COVID-19 cluster discovered in a data center of the Beijing Rural Commercial Bank in Shunyi district. By Wednesday afternoon, the number of infections of the cluster had risen from 28 to 32 compared with the day before. Of these, 25 were employees and the rest were family members, Pang said.

Another cluster reported on Tuesday in Fangshan district involved a subway renovation project. By Wednesday afternoon, 15 cases were found involving Fangshan and Haidian districts.

Pang expected more cases reported in the future due to this cluster.

As of Wednesday afternoon, Beijing had 20 high-risk areas for COVID-19 and 34 medium-risk areas.