Beijing's tussle with outbreak rolls on

Beijing is continuing to take measures to contain the epidemic as the number of new locally transmitted COVID-19 cases is still increasing.

Beijing reported 63 new locally transmitted COVID-19 cases between 3 pm Sunday and 3 pm on Monday, bringing the total number of infections to 1,556 since April 22.

Sixteen districts are involved-one more compared to the previous day-according to Liu Xiaofeng, deputy director of the Beijing Center for Disease Prevention and Control, at a news conference on Monday afternoon.

"Of the new infections, 58 were reported in controlled zones, and five were found from mass nucleic acid tests at the community level," he said.

"The cases have been found continuously from communities outside of the locked-down and controlled zones, covering nine districts during the past seven days, which shows that the epidemic situation is still severe and complicated in the city."

Recently, Beijing reported several clusters involving locations such as a university campus, a wholesale market and a subway renovation project.

"Some new locations such as Youyi residential community in Haidian and Oriental Plaza in Dongcheng have brought new risks of cluster infections," Liu said.

Nanxinyuan residential community in Chaoyang district had reported 26 confirmed cases by Friday involving eight buildings in the community since May 12 when it was designated as a locked-down zone.

According to the epidemic control and prevention regulations, days under lockdown measures need to be recalculated every time a new case is found, which has meant the lifting of restrictions has been postponed many times.

The authority decided to transfer all of the 4,979 residents in the community to 57 hotels with more than 4,000 rooms for seven-day centralized quarantine starting on Friday, according to Beijing Daily.

The special needs of people such as the elderly and patients have been logged and arranged for.

Pets were taken to professional pet-sitting facilities free of charge for the duration of the quarantine.

In neighboring Tianjin, the city reported 32 COVID-19 confirmed cases on Monday, increasing the tally of confirmed cases to 68 from Friday night to Sunday, when the city conducted two rounds of citywide nucleic acid testing.

The city's Omicron outbreak has a strong possibility of originating from cold chain logistics operations in Dongli district, according to Tianjin Radio.

A total of 11 districts launched a new round of nucleic acid testing on Monday and the districts with infected cases will see more rounds of testing this week.