Beijing COVID-19 situation critical

Beijing will further reduce people's mobility as the city is still at a critical stage in coping with the ongoing COVID-19 epidemic, senior officials said at a news conference on Thursday. The number of new local infections in the city has continued to rise with high speed and wide range.

Between midnight and 3 pm on Thursday, Beijing reported 863 local infections, with 159 detected at the community level, Liu Xiaofeng, deputy director of the Beijing Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said at the conference.

According to Liu, the travel of infections in recent days have involved in crowded places like colleges, construction sites and markets.

"Such places should enhance management for people's entrance and exit, with testing temperature and checking nucleic acid results a must," Liu said.

"We will continually improve the epidemic prevention and control measures to curb the rapid rise as soon as possible," Xu Hejian, spokesman of the municipality, said at the conference.

Among the measures, the efforts will be accelerated in confirming positive cases as well as tracing and treating them, Xu said.

Chaoyang, the hardest-hit district during the ongoing outbreak, recorded 317 infections between midnight and 3 pm on Thursday, among which 61 were from a community level, Yang Beibei, deputy head of Chaoyang district, said at the conference.

Yang said residents in Chaoyang are encouraged not to leave their residential communities or villages when not absolutely necessary, striving to reduce mobility.

"We will further slowdown activities in the community level," Yang said.