Beijing extends COVID-19 protocols, thousands forced into quarantine

Thousands of Covid-negative Beijing residents were forcibly relocated to quarantine hotels overnight due to a handful of infections, as the capital begins to take more extreme control measures resembling virus-hit Shanghai.

Following this, Beijing will extend strict and tight Covid-19 control measures as hidden community-level transmission has been discovered through recent screenings, a municipal official said.

Dine-in services at restaurants will remain unavailable, and schools will continue online classes, Xinhua news agency quoted Xu Hejian, a spokesperson for the Beijing municipal government, as saying to reporters.

Fengtai district will tighten pandemic control measures. People in the district should work from home. Bus and metro stations in Fengtai, except for those around two major railway stations, will be shut, Xu said.

People in Fangshan district are also encouraged to work from home, while enterprises in Haidian will further reduce the number of employees at offices, Xu added.

The Chinese capital reported 54 new locally transmitted Covid-19 infections between 3 p.m. Thursday and 3 p.m. Friday, said Liu Xiaofeng, deputy head of the Beijing municipal disease prevention and control centre.

Fifty-two cases were detected among people under closed-off management, and two were found through mass screening in communities, said Liu.

Eleven Covid-19 infections have been detected on a campus of the Beijing Institute of Technology in Fangshan since May 18.

More than 670 teachers and students on the campus have been transferred to a centralised quarantine site.

The capital city has classified 15 areas as high-risk for Covid-19 and 23 as medium-risk.

With inputs from agencies