Beijing holds marathon amid largely controlled outbreak

The Chinese capital has effectively controlled the COVID-19 outbreak that occurred continuously since late September and the Beijing Marathon, which was held on Sunday, has greatly boosted the confidence of the city in both epidemic prevention and control and economic development, senior officials said.

The marathon, which attracted approximately 20,000 runners, was the first major sporting event held in the capital since the Winter Olympics and Paralympics in February and March.

However, Beijing still facies infection risks from both local and imported cases, Xu Hejian, spokesman of the municipal government, said at a news conference held on Monday.

Between midnight and 3 pm on Monday, Beijing recorded 33 confirmed local COVID-19 cases, among whom one was detected at the community level, according to the Beijing Center for Disease Prevention and Control.

Pang Xinghuo, deputy director of the center, said several infection clusters since Oct 27 in Beijing were caused by imported cases related to a mall in neighboring Hebei province. The gene sequencing result shows the virus belongs to omicron variant BF.7.

"Those epidemic clusters involved 12 districts in Beijing and most of the areas have been basically controlled effectively," she said. "The new cases are mainly in Chaoyang district."