Couple in Bejing infected; contacts sought

Two new locally transmitted confirmed cases of COVID-19 — affecting a couple — were reported in Beijing on Wednesday and Thursday, the Beijing Center for Disease Prevention and Control said.

The two people tested positive for COVID-19 in nucleic acid tests. The man was diagnosed on Wednesday and the woman on Thursday. Both have mild symptoms and are being treated at a designated hospital, Pang Xinghuo, deputy director of the Beijing Center for Disease Prevention and Control said at a news conference on Thursday afternoon.

The couple had gone as tourists to Zhangjiajie, Hunan province, on July 20 and returned to Beijing on Sunday. They took the high-speed train G486 and arrived at Beijing West Railway Station at 9:26 pm on Sunday. They then took subway line 9, transferred to line 4 and line 13 and got off at Huilongguan Station, said Pang.

A total of 654 of their close contacts are being medically observed, and an epidemiological investigation is underway.

Pang urged people who had contact with the couple to report to their communities, companies or hotels and asked that the contacts cooperate with prevention and control measures such as quarantine, testing and health monitoring.

The Changping district of northern Beijing, where the two cases were reported, set up 16 nucleic acid sampling stations, said Tong Lizhi, deputy head of the district government.

As of noon on Thursday, 8,427 people had tested negative out of 38,699 people sampled. The remaining results will come soon.

Tong said the district is making preparations for mass testing.