Beijing reports one locally transmitted COVID-19 case

BEIJING - Beijing reported one new locally transmitted confirmed COVID-19 case on Friday, local health authorities said Saturday.

The 53-year-old man, who lives in Henan Village in the city's Shunyi District, is a close contact of a confirmed case reported previously and tested positive for the novel coronavirus during the quarantine, according to the city's health commission.

Henan Village was upgraded to a medium-risk region for COVID-19 starting on Saturday, Pang Xinghuo, deputy director of the Beijing center for disease control and prevention, told a press briefing. It brings the city's number of medium-risk areas to seven.

No new locally transmitted asymptomatic or suspected COVID-19 cases were reported in Beijing on Friday, according to the commission. The city also reported no new imported confirmed, asymptomatic or suspected COVID-19 cases on Friday.

Between Dec 18 and Jan 1, Beijing reported 25 locally transmitted confirmed cases of COVID-19, most of whom were in the suburban Shunyi District.

An official with the district government of Shunyi, where most of the recent cluster cases were reported, said that by 3 pm Saturday, a total of 1,924 people had been quarantined in designated hotels.

Meanwhile, some 108,200 people have tested negative after a second round of testing in some key areas, including medium-risk areas and the places that confirmed cases and their close contacts have been to recently, the official said.