Daxing Ronghui community designated high-risk level area

The Ronghui residential community in Beijing's southern Daxing district, where 10 confirmed local cases were found in the past three days, was designated a high-risk area for COVID-19 on Wednesday, a senior official in the capital said at a news conference the same day.

To date, Ronghui residential community is the one and only high-risk area in Beijing. On top of that, Beijing has three other medium-risk areas, all in Shunyi district, according to Pang Xinghuo, deputy head of the Beijing Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

The genomic sequencing of the virus from two confirmed cases in Daxing has shown that "the virus is the variant that was first found in the UK, which means the source of new cluster in Daxing should be imported from overseas," Pang said.

The virus is not related to previous cases in Beijing or recent cases reported in other provinces in China, she added.

"The cluster of the new cases in Daxing involves three families in the Ronghui community, which has reminded us that people should not get together during the epidemic period and be cautious of infection risk," she said.

The Daxing government announced on early Wednesday morning that the authority will start nucleic acid testing for all residents in the area to control and prevent the virus from spreading.

Beijing reported seven new local COVID-19 cases on Tuesday; six of them live in the Ronghui residential community. The last case lives in Shunyi district, but he is a colleague and close contact of a confirmed case in Daxing.

According to the announcement, all residents in Daxing should not leave Beijing when it's not necessary. All educational institutions are closed and students from kindergarten to senior high school should stay at home.

Daxing district had reported three confirmed cases and one asymptomatic case in total during this new cluster before Tuesday, with all living in the Ronghui residential community.

Daxing district has implemented strict virus control and prevention measures since the cases were found on Sunday.