Beijing university cluster leads to 11 infections

Beijing reported a new COVID-19 cluster involving a university this week, adding to the four previously reported, demonstrating crowded places such as universities, nursing institutions and construction sites are the core of the city's epidemic control and prevention work, a senior official said on Thursday.

Beijing reported 64 new locally transmitted COVID-19 cases between 3pm Wednesday and 3pm Thursday, bringing the total number of infections to 1,282 since April 22. Fifteen districts are involved, Liu Xiaofeng, deputy director of the Beijing Center for Disease Prevention and Control, said at a news conference on Thursday.

"Of the new infections, 62 were reported in controlled zones, and two were found from mass nucleic acid tests at community level," he said.

Recently, Beijing reported several clusters involving a wholesale market, a subway renovation project, a bus station and a branch of a logistics company, which has already resulted in more than one hundred cases.

The latest cluster, reported on Monday involving a branch of Beijing Institute of Technology in Fangshan district, has led to 11 confirmed cases by Tuesday afternoon, according to Zhang Mingzhi, a spokesman for the district.

All 670 teachers, students and other staff of the university branch have been transferred to centralized quarantine.

Campuses of the other five universities near the area have been closed and kept under strict control measures, Zhang said. All people in those universities will take three rounds of nucleic acid tests.

Of all 1,282 cases reported thus far, Chaoyang district registered 407, the most in the outbreak, followed by Fangshan, which reported 362. Fengtai reported 173 and Haidian reported 133.

As of Thursday, Beijing had 14 high-risk areas for COVID-19 and 29 medium-risk areas.