Beijing sees two transmission chains, likely more cases in near future

Beijing reported 22 locally transmitted COVID-19 cases between 4 pm Monday and 4 pm Tuesday, a cumulative total of 92 during the latest COVID-19 outbreak involving eight districts, according to the Beijing Center for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday.

Beijing's health authority found two independent transmission chains during the outbreak since Friday based on investigation and gene sequencing, said Pang Xinghuo, deputy director of the center, at a news conference on Tuesday afternoon.

She expected the number of new cases will continue to rise in the following days.

"The gene sequencing on 38 samples from the patients showed the infections involved the Omicron variant and are part of two different transmission chains - one in Chaoyang district which registered more than half the confirmed cases and one in Fengtai district related to a hospital," Pang said.

In addition to previous clusters, Pang said four infected people were related through a wedding and it's possible this cluster will see more cases.

As of Tuesday, Beijing has two high-risk areas and 12 medium-risk areas.

Zhao Weidong, deputy head of the city's commerce bureau, said seven major wholesale agricultural produce markets provided a total of 25,200 metric tons of vegetables on Tuesday, up 11 percent compared with the previous day.

Previously, the bureau said sufficient government reserves are available for daily goods for the public, and management has been strengthened to ensure use as needed.

Zhao announced on Tuesday the government reserve of 100 tons of eggs has been provided to the market starting on Tuesday.