9 confirmed in Bejing's first cluster-infected coronavirus cases

Beijing reported the first hospital cluster-infected novel coronavirus cases on Monday, with nine cases confirmed, with all sent to designated hospitals for further treatment, according to local authorities.

The nine patients include five medical care personnel, and four with mild symptoms. The clustered situation occurred in the intensive care unit of the cardiology department at Beijing Fuxing Hospital, a top hospital in the capital, said Miao Jianhong, deputy director of the capital's Xicheng district, in a press conference held in Beijing on Monday.

Through preliminary research, the incident of the hospital cluster infection case is closely related to some individual medical staff infections. Specific reasons are under epidemiological investigation in multiple checks and relevant people who were in close contact with the patients are being put under concentrated medical observation, Miao said.

Fuxing Hospital also strengthened prevention and control measures to combat the spread of the novel coronavirus, he added.

On Monday, Beijing announced 24 new novel coronavirus cases between Sunday noon and midnight, bringing the total confirmed to 212. Among the new confirmed cases, 12 had close contact with previously confirmed cases and four had denied that they had any previous connection with Central China's Hubei province.

Beijing has discovered 41 cluster-infected coronavirus cases involving more than 120 people, accounting for more than half of the capital's confirmed cases, said He Xiong, deputy director of the Beijing Center for Diseases Prevention and Control at a press conference on Monday.

He specified that the clustered infection case means two or more confirmed cases have been found in a relatively small area, such as a family, school class or construction site. Personal communication among infected cases may trigger the possibility of new infection due to the exposure.

Once an epidemic situation happens, surrounding people will be threatened and community-level prevention and control measures also face new challenges, He said.

The capital also urged local authorities to strengthen daily supplies to ensure citizens have items for routine living, and clarified the quarantine measure towards residents who had traveled to Hubei province or had close contact with those who went to these areas, in that they be put under medical observation indoors for 14 days, according to a document released by the municipal government on Monday.

Beijing also speeded up the approval process for prevention and control assets production projects to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus, according to the document. Subsidies  were allocated to related medical care personnel at hospitals as giving those who have direct contact with patients 300 yuan ($42.70) per day, and other pandemic control and prevention staff 200 yuan per day.