Beijing district restricts residents from leaving city to stem COVID-19 spread

BEIJING -- Beijing's Daxing District issued a notification Wednesday banning all people in the district from leaving the capital in the wake of new COVID-19 cases.

Those who need to travel outside the city should obtain approval from local authorities and have a negative COVID-19 nucleic acid test result taken within three days, according to the leading group on epidemic prevention and control work in Daxing.

The district will enforce stringent lockdown management in five residential compounds in the Tiangongyuan subdistrict, where the new cases were detected.

All public places in the subdistrict are required to suspend operation. Visitor flows in public places outside the subdistrict, including stores, commercial buildings, hotels, cinemas and gyms, should be limited to 50 percent of their maximum capacity.

Training institutes in the district have also been asked to close, while special institutions, such as nursing homes and welfare homes, shall be managed with closed-off measures to contain the COVID-19 resurgence.

Besides, public transportation in the district is required to cap passenger flows at 75 percent of full capacity.

Beijing reported seven new locally transmitted COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, of which six were reported in the Ronghui residential compound in Daxin's Tiangongyuan subdistrict.