Beijing stepping up testing requirements for key industries

Beijing will strictly regulate nucleic acid tests for key industries, including express delivery and housekeeping, as the number of COVID-19 cases has continued to rise recently.

Tang Yunhua, deputy head of the capital's market supervisory authority, said at a news conference on Monday all staff in selected industries, including agriculture markets, cold-chain food, supermarkets, hair salons, express delivery and housekeeping should have negative results from a nucleic acid test taken within 14 days before continuing their work.

"Staff in drugstores should have negative results of a nucleic acid test from within 7 days," she added.

The city will conduct nucleic acid testing for employees in agriculture produce markets and cold-chain food industry and people living with them once a month to cut potential infection risks.

Beijing reported one new locally transmitted case as of 2 pm Monday. The patient is the wife of a previous confirmed case.

In total, Beijing has 29 confirmed local cases and 2 asymptomatic cases from this round of the domestic outbreak.