Clusters causing new infections

Beijing reported three COVID-19 clusters caused at workplaces this week by Friday and the number of infections was still growing, according to a senior official from the the city's CDC.

One of the clusters involving a subway renovation project has resulted in 41 infections by Friday, involving four districts in the city, said Pang Xinghuo, deputy director of the Beijing Center for Disease Prevention and Control, at a news conference on Friday.

Nineteen new cases of this cluster were reported on Friday. Among the total 41 cases, 31 were recorded in Haidian district, the location of the company.

Pang said more cases could emerge from this cluster.

Haidian district reported 24 new locally transmitted cases in total on Thursday and Friday, including 23 from controlled zones and one from the mass nucleic acid tests at communities, said Lin Hang, deputy head of the district on Friday.

She said the district has disinfected four hotels that the company rented in Haidian and conducted nucleic acid tests for around 110,000 residents in the community where the company is based.

On Monday, Beijing reported another cluster discovered in a data center of the Beijing Rural Commercial Bank in Shunyi district.

By Friday afternoon, the number of infections in the cluster had reached 34, of which 26 were employees and the rest their family members.

The third cluster reported on Friday involved a bus station and the cluster resulted in three cases by Friday afternoon.