Capital communities lower risk levels for coronavirus

Nearly 20 residential communities in Beijing have lowered their risk level for COVID-19 control and prevention as the city has taken effective measures to contain the spread of the outbreak, a senior official said on Wednesday.

Beijing reported three new local cases on Tuesday, the fewest since the capital found a cluster of novel coronavirus cases on June 11, Pang Xinghuo, deputy head of the Beijing Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said at a news conference on Wednesday.

"All three new cases are from Daxing district. One of them, who is female and aged 20, gathered with friends on June 25 after she had completed a 14-day self-quarantine," Pang said. "She had symptoms of headache and vomiting since June 21 but didn't report it or go to hospital."

Pang reminded the public that people should not participate in any get-togethers when they are sick.

According to Pang, 47 communities in 11 districts in Beijing have found confirmed COVID-19 cases since June 11. At the peak, there were five high-risk communities and 39 medium-risk communities.

As the measures take effect, one high-risk community had lowered the level to medium-risk and 17 among the 39 medium-risk communities had become low-risk areas by Wednesday, she said.

According to the national standard, cities, counties and districts with no active cases or with no new infections in the past 14 days are categorized as low-risk; those with new infections in the past 14 days and fewer than 50 cumulative confirmed cases, or with over 50 cumulative confirmed cases but without a concentrated outbreak in the past 14 days, are categorized as medium-risk.

By Wednesday afternoon, the four high-risk areas were in Daxing and Fengtai districts. Xinfadi, the wholesale market to which all cases in the new cluster of infections are related, is located in Fengtai and is close to Daxing.

From June 11 to Tuesday, there were 328 confirmed cases in Beijing. Two patients have been discharged and the rest are being treated in Beijing Ditan Hospital, which is affiliated to the Capital Medical University and well-known for dealing with infectious diseases.

He Jingtao, deputy head of Daxing district, said that by Tuesday, 65 confirmed cases among the total are from Daxing and are being treated at Beijing Ditan.